Microsoft yesterday launched its Windows XP operating system, its biggest product in six years, with a great deal of hype and a strong dose of patriotic fervour in New York.
About 1,500 guests and media stood to attention as a 30-member choir in white robes sang America the Beautiful. They then gave New York Mayor Mr Rudolph Giuliani a standing ovation when he appeared on stage with Microsoft chairman Mr Bill Gates.
Mr Gates praised the mayor and New York people for their "courage, determination and resilience" in the wake of the September 11th attacks, declaring "we all fully support the global effort to fight terrorism".
The Microsoft boss also claimed that the Windows XP operating system "could not come at a better time for the city of New York".
But whether it will help the city and give a boost to the computer industry at a time of severe economic downturn is not certain. The system went on sale in computer stores yesterday at $199 (€222), or $99 for upgrades, for home and corporate consumers, but there were no signs of queues for the new product, as happened when Windows 95 went on sale six years ago.
A third of all PC owners, amounting to 140 million people, would have to buy new computers to take advantage of Windows XP, since it only runs well on models sold in the past two years, according to Mr David Readerman, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners.
At present corporate America is showing no enthusiasm for investing in new computers. Global shipments of PCs tumbled by more than 10 per cent in the third quarter, its first decline since 1986, according to Gartner Dataquest.
Mr Gates was nevertheless decidedly upbeat as he launched the $200 million marketing campaign in the glitzy Marriott Marquis Hotel on Times Square.
"This is the kind of thing that will drag the PC industry back to record sales," he said.
"Today really is actually the end of the MS-DOS era," said Mr Gates, referring to Microsoft's original decades-old operating system.
Windows XP contains more new features than Windows 98 or Millennium Edition. It includes programmes for listening to and recording music, playing videos, and editing and organising digital photographs. A feature called Windows Messenger lets users communicate instantly with others using text, voice and video.
The product has been dogged by controversy, with critics alleging that its software links to other Microsoft services are designed to increase the Seattle-based firm's dominance of the internet.
