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Globally, FY 07 was the biggest year of product launches in Microsofts history since 1995. The reactions in India differed though: back then, Indias potential was acknowledged but still peripheral; today, the Indian story is eagerly tracked, as was evident from Steve Ballmers visit.

The successes too were enviable: Windows Vista crossing 600,000 licenses, 1.75 mn Office 2007 licenses, Dynamics client base crossing 550, Windows Mobile garnering 30.5% market share (10 points ahead of Blackberry) the list runs on.

Big bets were placed on the SMB and government sectors the previous year and last fiscal saw many of the initial efforts bearing fruit. New initiatives included the launch of an SMB portal, expansion to six more cities, stepping up Project Vikas and lighter versions of Windows and Vista. Added to its SMB focus, the eHome and Project Bhasha initiatives and the availability of genuine software online through Indiatimes helped bring down software piracy by one percentage point (to 71%).

Anti-piracy campaign however antagonized a large section of resellers. There were even protests and boycotts by few channel associations, coupled with threats to Microsoft asking to change its policies and pricing mechanisms in India.

Notwithstanding the Linux threat (and there was some mandated Linux adoption by the Kerala and West Bengal governments), Microsoft made significant inroads into state governments including Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and MP. The agreement with Novell (interoperability between SuSe Linux and Windows) may go a long way in taming the march of the penguin. DQ

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