Marketing Strategies / Strategic Marketing Case Study

Vista: Can Microsoft make it a Success?

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Abstract:
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology company with annual global revenue of $44.28 billion. It developed, manufactured and supported a wide range of software products for computing devices. After the success of Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP in 2001, Microsoft on January 30th 2007, launched Microsoft Vista which was codenamed “Longhorn” in its developmental stages. Vista’s main objective was to provide an improved security to the Microsoft driven operating system, as security was the main problem with Windows XP. Microsoft claimed that it had prioritized improving the security of Vista more than that of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft expected to sell twice as many copies of new Vista operating system in its first year of launch as against Windows XP in 2001.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To understand the strategy behind launching a new product
• To understand Microsoft’s strategy of upgrading products and monopoplising the market
• To analyze whether Microsoft will be able to make Vista a success.

Keywords : Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft XP, Microsoft Vista, Security, Software Industry, Linux, Mac OS X, Longhorn, Operating System, Marketing Strategies Case Study, Apple, Maintenance, PC Sales, HP, Crossfire, Aqua