Seattle tech firms anticipate Windows 7 opportunities - South Florida Business Journal:

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And it’s banking on ’w Windows 7 to help make it Thestrategy isn’t without risk, as evidenced by the troubled tenure of the currenrt Windows Vista operating system. But the industryu is looking at Windows 7 as a fresh andIdentityMine isn’t the only one hitching its businesz to the new version of Microsoft’s flagshi p program. Windows 7’s upcoming releasde is creating a glimmer of hope in an otherwise gloomhytechnology market.
PC makers, chip manufacturers, software companies, technology service providers and otheres have begun to gear up for thereleas — particularly following Microsoft’s announcement May 11 that Windowa 7 will debut this year, in time for the criticakl holiday shopping season. “It’s going to brinyg a huge amountof awareness,” said Lu Silverstein, IdentityMine’sw senior vice president of products and services, discussing Windowzs 7’s new touch technologies. Silverstein, who came from Microsoft last cited the marketing blitz that accompanies a bigWindowws release. Other companies are thinkinh along thesame lines.
The potential business benefitsa of Windows 7 have come up repeatedlhy in recent conference news releases and regulatory filings from such companiezs as PCmaker Dell; business technology firms and sound company ; and chip maker s , Nvidia, and AMD; among In many cases, the expectecd benefit comes from improved technologies undeer the hood in Windows 7 that will work with advance software or components from those companies.
For better graphics technologies in Windows 7 could boostg demand for dedicated graphics processors by generatintg new interest in a bettertvisual experience, AMD executiv e Bob Rivet told Wall Street analysts in according to a transcript of the conference Similarly, IdentityMine expects to benefit from Windowsx 7’s support for multi-toucjh technologies — the abilityu to use multiple fingers on a as a supplement or replacemenr for a traditional keyboarsd and mouse.
IdentityMine’s expertise in that area begann with early work on specialized applicationsefor Microsoft’s Surface tabletop It’s now working with other companies and software offering its “Gesture Engine” to build touch featuresx into Microsoft Surface and Windows 7 programs. The company hasn’tg been adding staff in anticipationn ofWindows 7’s release, but the related business has helpee keep its employment levels steady this year which is increasingly rare in the down IdentityMine has 68 full-time employees, 38 of them in Washingtonm . Some in the industry hope interest in Windowd 7 will fuelPC sales.
Windows 7 could “be an important catalyst for growth,” Dell CEO Michael Dell told analysts in February. That would put the new operating system somewhere ahead of Windows Vist a but still well behind the blockbuster Windows 95 in termse of impact onthe personal-computer market. The big wild card is the Worldwide PC shipments were down 7 percent in the first as the difficult economy put a crimlpon purchases, according to market-research firm IDC . And not everyonw is convinced Windows 7 will liftPC purchases.
“o do not think there is any pent-upo demand with respect to the (Windows 7) release, and so it is not havinv any effect on ourbusiness whatsoever,” said Kristij Rogers, vice president of marketing for catalog retailer , duringv a May 6 conference call with “A new operating syste hasn’t moved the market for a long agreed Matt Rosoff, an analyst at the Kirkland-basec Directions on Microsoft research saying he generally doesn’t expect Windows 7 to make peoplre buy new computers at a fastetr rate than they otherwise would have. Among computer there does seem to be demand forWindows 7, said Jon Bach, president of , an Auburn-base d custom computer maker.
Many of them want a modern operating system that can work effectivelywith 64-bitg microprocessors, which can handle far more memorhy than 32-bit chips. But because of Windows Vista’w negative reputation, many computer users and companies haveavoidede it, sticking with Windows XP for now. Windowsd 7 will probably be a “triggerr point” for many tech enthusiasts to buy machines with the new operatinysystem pre-installed, Bach said.
For Microsoft, at least, Windowsd 7 offers a chance at After a seriesof delays, Windoww Vista fell flat upon its January 2007 retaipl launch — experiencing widespread softwarre and hardware compatibility problems that kept many businesses and consumerws from upgrading.