Microsoft has launched a massive marketing campaign to make sure Windows XP
gathers market share at an accelerated pace. The new campaign is trying to
entice the ‘lucky’ ones to win a Fiat Palio, home theater systems, DVD
players, Swatches, and many more goodies.
The Win XP Professional comes with gifts such as a sleek personal phone from
Beetel, HP 656C DeskJet printer, Casio PVS 250 pocket viewer or a Compaq iPAQ
3760 pocket PC. The Home edition has goodies like Fabmart gift certificates,
Swatch watches, a Casio pocket viewer, a Sony music system and even a Fiat Palio.
All these freebies are targeted at growing the market acceptance of the not so
popular Win XP.
Meanwhile, distributors have decided to play on a single dealer transfer
price. A result of that is the escalated price tag. Distributors have attributed
this price escalation to the dollar exchange price increase and an effort to
bring some stability in the volatile market. This move has further weakened the
already feeble marketshare of Win XP. According to channel partners, this is
keeping customers away as they cannot justify this increase in price.
In addition, channel partners are not at all happy about the licensing policy
of Microsoft and in fact a few have backed out of such license sales. Technical
experts feel that Win XP does not carry the value for money proposition and that
it has more frills attached rather than technically strong features.
The channel is not enthusiastic about the success of the product; rather, it
is marginally optimistic about it. There are a lot of factors which are
affecting Win XP sales. Reasons range from low market sentiments to low
acceptance of the product in the price sensitive Indian market.
The recent marketing campaign appears to be an effort to expand Win XP’s
stagnant marketshare. The retail segment is yet to get pepped up about an
expensive commodity like Win XP. The corporate and government sectors are yet to
spend freely and the SOHO and SME segments are non-existent in the present
circumstances.
Channel partners think that this is not a product for the Indian target
audience. With not much of value addition, there are very few takers. The
channels believe that the push strategy is the only strategy that might work
well for Microsoft; as there is no pull in the market.
Vipul Dutta, director, Futuresoft, says, "We are doing business and
still continuing with Win XP. This shows that it is doing well enough in the
market." Most of the channel partners feel that the market will pick up and
so will the sales of Win XP. Ashish Aggarwal, director, Trifin Technologies,
says, "The market has already accepted the product, it just needs to get
into the required momentum. Every product goes through its lifecycle and so will
Win XP. The home segment already prefers Win XP to Win ME/2000 editions. But the
recent ad campaign seems to have had no effect on sales."
Some feel that this product is not as technically strong as other comparative
products, it comes with frills attached. Ravinath Raj, business manager, Sonata,
a leading Microsoft distributor, said, "Yes, it is true that Win XP has not
been able to gather the same attention as its predecessors did, but the market
sentiments are a major factor. Surely, the market needs to be educated more
about this product."
According to Microsoft, this is a regular marketing campaign conducted at the
end of every quarter. Karthik Padmanabhan, senior marketing manager, Microsoft
Corporation (India), informs, "Well, this promo has been able to give us
the required momentum in the market, in fact we have overshot our sales
estimates by 20%."
Commenting on the impetus given to the Home edition, he felt that this is the
peak season for the home segment to buy commodities. "The Indian market now
is as tech-savvy as the western world is and I do feel that Win XP is exactly
the kind of product that the users would be looking for. It is a technically
stable and advanced product," says Padmanabhan.
With huge marketing budgets, Microsoft has been able to create the required
momentum in the market for its products in the past, but what’s left to be
seen is how soon Win XP gains acceptance in the already dull market.
Shweta Khanna/CNS in New Delhi