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Microsoft previews �XP� system By ALLISON LINN The Associated Press SEATTLE � Calling it a product that would be as useful for his mother as for businesses, Microsoft Corp. Vice President Jim Allchin on Tuesday said the new Windows XP desktop operating system was "the experience that I�ve always wanted to build." At a news conference previewing the new desktop operating system, which is to be released in the second half of this year, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said the product would "meet the demand that the Windows setup be the center" of any personal computing system. But instead of offering new gadgets, the new system instead seems to make already existing features easier to find and use. Gates and Allchin touted the clean, easy-to-navigate design of the new system during a presentation to reporters at the Experience Music Project, the rock �n� roll museum in Seattle built by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The presentation, complete with Allchin�s own original music score, focused on consumer uses such as digital cameras and music players. The Microsoft executives also touted the operating system�s increased speed. The new operating system makes it easier for multiple users, such as members of a family to share a computer. It also allows an authorized person on one computer to access another computer over the Internet, to fix problems. Gates said XP cost more than $1 billion to develop, above the cost of the Windows 2000 system it is based on, but declined to say how much it would sell for. It is the first consumer-oriented system to use the more reliable Windows 2000 software code, which was designed for heavier-duty corporate and Internet users. Gates called Windows XP "the most important release since Windows 95," the much-hyped operating system that also was geared toward the consumer market. Rob Enderle, a research fellow with Giga Information Systems who follows Microsoft, said the company�s current marketing plan is similar to the push it gave to Windows 95, a runaway hit for Microsoft. But Enderle said the market has changed greatly since 1995. Sales might be hurt by a softening economy and the rising price of electricity in the West, he said. "In other words, all the messages that you would hope would be in place to get people to drive to the store are overwhelmed by the message to stay at home and lock money under the mattress," he said. While people in 1995 were hungry for faster operating systems, people now are more focused on getting on networks and the Internet, which are still relatively slow, Enderle said. "It doesn�t do you any good to have a Ferrari when the speed limit is 20 miles an hour," he said. Henry Blodget, an analyst who follows Microsoft for Merrill Lynch, said Windows XP�s success will largely depend on the success of the personal computer market in general. "Relatively few consumers are going to rush out and buy a new operating system to install on their existing PC, so the question is, how much new demand is there?" Blodget said. Blodget thinks some people have been holding off buying a computer until XP comes out, but he is still predicting that PC sales will slow considerably in the coming year, especially if the economy is weak. Gates dismissed those concerns, saying he thinks the market will be boosted by the new product. "What it takes are new experiences" to increase growth in the PC market, he said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.