Former Silicon Graphics chief lands top Microsoft job

Microsoft has appointed former Silicon Graphics CEO Rick Belluzzo as president and chief operating officer.

Belluzzo replaces retiring COO Bob Herbold. A Microsoft spokeswoman claimed 'the time was right' for Herbold to retire, denying that any internal political manouevreing played a role in the decision. The spokeswoman added that Herbold will continue to play a part-time role with Microsoft, representing the company at a corporate and governmental level. Microsoft said Belluzzo's promotion is indicative of the central role he has commanded in the Microsoft hierarchy since being appointed group VP of the personal services and devices group in September 1999. The appointment comes just one day after the software giant previewed the latest version of its OS, Windows XP, and its latest office applications suite, Office XP. Microsoft's latest update to its operating system has received a mixed response from the industry since its unveiling yesterday evening at the firm's US headquarters. Windows XP is heralded as the culmination of a project to unite Microsoft consumer and corporate operating systems under one brand. Formerly codenamed Whistler, XP is also intended to pave the way for much of the added functionality that Microsoft's vision of .NET 'web services' will bring. The product is slated for full release at the end of 2001, but some analysts remained sceptical about its impact. Mark Simmons, senior analyst at Bloor Research, said: "This is not much more than a re-badging of the same old product. It's just another upgrade to Windows, and not really much to get excited about." Clive Longbottom, analyst at Quocirca, was more positive: "Microsoft can't afford to continue to support and develop two different products for the business and home user market. This product starts to solve that problem. However, it does mean that for end users there will be backwards compatibility issues."