[Marketing] Competitive Landscape: MS now selling netbooks online in US, planned for retail; website relaunched

[Sean DALY]

I saw Ina Fried's piece
(http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10381031-56.html) about Microsoft
selling PCs for the first time and I note with interest that they seem
to have thrown in the towel on the "ULCPC" vs. "netbook" nomenclature
issue - they are selling "netbooks" in the "Netbook" category (as
distinct from "Laptops").

OEMs: Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo, Acer.
Absent: Toshiba, Asus, Samsung, Compaq, Fujitsu.

Intel procs only as far as I can tell.

Note that to obtain the Windows 7 product benefit "Work in the
language of your choice or switch between any of thirty-five
languages", it is necessary to purchase Windows 7 Ultimate. I can't
wait to mention that the next time I'm demoing Sugar and I switch
between languages ;-)

As I expected, MS has also relaunched their public-facing flagship
website in "fashionable green".

Sean