Microsoft plays up 'less is more' as its holiday retail message
With consumers hunkering down, how is Microsoft hoping to get them to spend on technology toys and software this holiday season?
The theme at the company's Holiday 2008 "In the (K)now" showcase in New York City this week is less is more. (A theme which fits nicely with Microsoft's campaign to encourage its PC partners to de-crapify their Vista PCs in the name of improving Windows systems' out-of-the-box experience. More on that below.)
Microsoft officials hosting the showcase for local press acknowledged that two-thirds of Americans are going to spend less this holiday season. They claimed 50 percent of Americans are looking to pool their resources to buy one, larger gift, rather than many smaller ones. And three quarters of holiday shoppers are looking at entertainment gifts to be used at home. (All of these stats and more are from a "national random digit dialing phone study conducted by StrategyOne Research, September 2008.")
The Softies are playing up accessories, under-$1,000 Vista laptops, Windows Mobile phones (both budget $100-and-less models, as well as new, premium phones like the Samsung Omnia and HTC Touch Pro), and games like the RockBand 2 for the Xbox 360 and LEGO Batman for Windows PCs as potential holiday gifts.
They're also touting freebies, like Windows Live services -- showing off the new, single-click black-and-white effects capability in the new beta version of Windows Live Photo Gallery, for example, which can be used to create frameable photos for giving. Live Search Cashback (Microsoft's paid-search promotional program) and Live Search Farecast travel-search services can save holiday shoppers and travelers money they can use elsewhere, Microsoft officials emphasized.
A number of the software packages, peripherals (BlueTrack mice, Lifecams) and accessories (Zune armbands and docking stations) that Microsoft is highlighting at the showcase come in at the $100-or-less price point. In the "bigger gift" category, the Softies are showing off some of the newer, customized Vista laptops from Sony, Dell, Asus (a flower-scented F6 model for $1,050) and HP.
The HP system on display -- the recently introduced Pavillion dv41140-go -- features a back-lit HP logo (not too different from the familar glowing Apple on Apple machines). Microsoft is highlighting the dv4-1140-go as an example of how Microsoft's recently acknowledged tighter partnership with its PC-maker partners is paying off.
The HP dv4-1140 I saw is largely crapware-free, right out of the box (along the lines of the crapware-free Sony VAIO that my ZDNet colleague Ed Bott described a few months back).
"There's pretty much nothing on the desktop," said Senior Windows Product Manager Craig Cincotta. Other than Vista and Windows Live services, there are a couple of HP-specific programs, but no preloaded free third-party software trials, gimmicks or other clutter.
(Note: The product's spec list on the HP site shows a number of trialware programs come as part of the system, including Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008 and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 Edition. Maybe these only install if selected by the user?)
Update: Here's why the HP PC I saw looked so clean. An HP spokesperson explains: "The trial programs installed in the dv4-1140go are not on the desktop but can be accessed from the start button. We offer them so that our customers can be safe when connecting to the internet and they can try out Microsoft Office and have the tools they need right out of the box. The product features we really aim to emphasize are in the attached document."
In these tough economic times, laptops costing a few hundred dollars aren't seen as affordable by many. Sixty-dollar games and $200 phones aren't going to make it onto many shopping lists, either. Even with pared-down expectations, it's going to be a chilly retail season for everyone -- Microsoft and its partners, included.
What kinds of tech gifts (if any) are you planning on buying -- or wishing for -- this holiday season?