Slideshow: A look ahead at Microsoft's FY 2010 launch plans

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    At its Worldwide Partner Conference last week, Microsoft shared with its resellers some of its plans for its FY10, a year when it is planning more product launches than any time in its previous history. I've gone through a number of the slide decks presented at the conference and culled some of the slides that might be most helpful for consumers and business users planning to buy new Microsoft wares.

    This is a slide showing the company's sales/marketing calendar for its fiscal year, starting in July 2009. November 2009 is the big push month for Win7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010. The sales machine gears up again in early 2010 (Microsoft's fiscal Q3) for SharePoint 2010 and for Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2 in the spring of next year.

    For more, see Mary Jo Foley's blog, All About Microsoft

    Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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    Unsurprisingly, Windows 7 is Microsoft's biggest marketing focus for the rest of this year. As this slide makes plain, all talk of Vista was cut off just after the Release Candidate for Win 7 hit. The word "Windows" supplants Vista in Microsoft's campaigns going forward. The "Right PC" retail and Genuine antipiracy campaigns will continue through the rest of this calendar year, as well.

    Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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    Still no mention of a big-bang consumer retail launch (on or around October 22, which is the general availability date for Win 7). But there is mention of a single business "launch." Microsoft's focus with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 seems to be to keep the "launch" flowing, with regular campaigns, offers and updates geared toward partners, developers and customers.

    Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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    This slide includes some Microsoft data that the company normally doesn't publicize. Microsoft is projecting there will be 45 million new Windows 7 PCs sold to enterprise users in 2010. Another 50 million PCs will be "Windows 7 upgradable.) Microsoft also notes there will be 51 million active Software Assurance users who will be an available upgrade audience.

    Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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    But the really big opportunity for Windows 7, Microsoft is telling its partners, is in the SMB space. Approximately 55 million new PCs loaded with Windows 7 will be sold to small and mid-size business customers in 2010, the company is projecting. And more than 196 million will be Windows 7-capable.

    Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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    Another slide with a few more go-to-market details around the business "launch" of Windows 7/Win Server 2008 R2/Exchange 2010. It looks like the theme will be "ready to go" and begins with making sure partners themselves are running these three products. "Sneak peeks" of Windows 7 are on the agenda, as well.

    Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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    It's a bit tough to read, but this is the mother of all marketing slides. It outlines Microsoft's calendar for a variety of Windows, Office and Server launches. Office 2010 isn't slated to launch until May/June 2010, according to this slide. Windows Server 2008 R2's launch period is listed as November/Decembe of this year. Windows 7's "launch" is shown as the period from November 2009 to January 2010. From this slide, it looks like Microsoft will be highlighting this summer the end of support for XP (to put a little fear in the hearts of stubborn XP users, no doubt) and is planning a promotional tour for Windows 7 along with AMD.

    Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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Unsurprisingly, Windows 7 is Microsoft's biggest marketing focus for the rest of this year. As this slide makes plain, all talk of Vista was cut off just after the Release Candidate for Win 7 hit. The word "Windows" supplants Vista in Microsoft's campaigns going forward. The "Right PC" retail and Genuine antipiracy campaigns will continue through the rest of this calendar year, as well.

Caption by: Mary Jo Foley

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