Analysts dissect Microsoft's Windows 8 pitch

25.10.2012
Microsoft's top executives, including CEO Steve Ballmer and the head of Windows, Steven Sinofsky, took the stage in New York today to launch Windows 8 and its sibling, Windows RT.

Analysts' impressions were mixed, with some asking, "Is that all?" while others called the presentation the best Windows launch in nearly 20 years.

"Yeah, I'm really excited," Ballmer said as he stepped into the limelight near the end of the hour-long webcast presentation. Moments later, he called the new Windows tablets, and by reference, Windows 8 and Windows RT, "really, truly magical," perhaps intentionally escalating the adjective that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who religiously used "magical" to describe his company's new products, was so fond of.

Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester who was at the event, was nonplused about the keynote -- even Ballmer's time on stage.

"He wasn't out of control, but he had more emotion than the others," said Gillett. "But even though he had more energy, there was some snap missing. And I have to say that they didn't do anything that made me feel good about how they're going to eliminate the confusion that consumers will have facing buying decisions."

Others countered, however.