VIEWPOINT: With the release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system yesterday, we thought it apt to unveil an interview and demo sessions we did with executives from both Microsoft and Apple (which released the Mac OS X Snow Leopard update in August).

Basically the objective of this interview is to understand what are the new directions and features each operating software has in the areas of security, functionality, aesthetics and user needs.

If you want a comprehensive breakdown of both operating systems, refer to the Windows 7 review and Mac OS X Snow Leopard summary by the HardwareZone Singapore team. Alternatively, you can refer to your past issues of HWM for our comprehensive coverage of both operating systems.

Here’s the ViewPoint video of the interview with both executives:

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.

Hit the jump to watch actual demo sessions on both Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. For the Windows 7 demos, we had the pleasure of having Mr. Matthew Hardman, Group Manager, Business & Marketing Organization, Microsoft show us its features.

Navin Danapal, Technical Editor, HWM Malaysia

Navin (HWM Malaysia): Apple lost a good chance to position their latest Mac OS 10.6, Snow Leopard, as an idol in the land of the Otaku (geeks) of Japan, when Microsoft Japan beat the Cupertino company in coolness by coming out with an official OS-Tan (OS personification), Nanami Madobe, voiced by Nana Mizuki, a Japanese anime voice actress, to represent Windows 7.

Limited to only the first 7777 copies of Windows 7 Ultimate in Japan, the unique Windows 7 theme was quickly leaked out and distributed to other Windows 7 users.

While OS-Tans have long been invented by devoted Japanese fans for previous versions of Windows, Microsoft coming out with an official character showed their commitment to making Windows 7 become really appealing to all levels of their target markets.

If this link is anything to go by, Apple should have done the same instead of resorting to tactics like hijacking Google search results for Windows 7 and directing people to consider a Mac instead.

(more…)

CORP TALK: The New York Times has released news that Microsoft and Nokia, long-time foes in the mobile phone field, have formed a partnership where Microsoft Office software will appear in Nokia cellphones soon.

According to the article, as Microsoft’s Office series toughens up against challenges from free Web-based tools from the likes of Google, putting the ubiquitous Office in the hands of the world’s largest mobile phone maker might seem a good way to slow that threat a tad. (more…)

VIEWPOINT: For our third HWM ViewPoint video program series, the HardwareMAG.com team met up with Mr. Chris Chin, Developer Marketing Director for the Asia Pacific and Greater China region for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business division.

Here, Chris answers some questions related to the developer programs which have been put in place for communities interested in creating apps for the Windows Mobile Marketplace ecosystem. Marketplace, by the way, is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s App Store, BlackBerry’s AppWorld or Nokia’s Ovi Store.

Here’s some additional info on what it would take for developers to create apps for Marketplace.

Here’s the exclusive ViewPoint video. Enjoy.

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.

CORP TALK: After so many ups and downs, a partnership is finally formed between Microsoft and Yahoo in a 10-year deal with the common goal to eventually thwart the advances of Internet search giant Google, as reported by the BBC here.

The two companies will collaborate together, where Microsoft will use its Bing search engine (our report on Bing here) to power the Yahoo website while Yahoo will become the advertising sales agent for Microsoft’s online offering.

Prior to this, Yahoo has turned down several takeover bids from Microsoft over the past year. The deal will see Yahoo getting 88% of revenue from all search ad sales on its site (within the first 5 years) and it will have the right to sell ads on other Microsoft websites.

"Low cost small notebook PCs" might not have the ring we want but if it sticks, Microsoft might reap ready benefits from it.

CORP TALK: Considering that Psion has decided to give the all-clear for the usage of the netbook term as reported by The New York Times here, we hear news that Microsoft wants to redefine mini-notebooks with a new term - low cost small notebook PC.

This was expressed by Mr. Steven Guggenheimer, General Manager for the Application Platform and Development Marketing Division for Microsoft at Computex 2009, as reported by DigiTimes.com here.

According to Guggenheimer, the term netbook is misleading, because these mini-notebooks have feature capabilities that allow a user to not just surf the Internet but do a great many other things. According to the DigiTimes report, market watchers are speculating that this renaming strategy by Microsoft is aimed at distinguishing mini-notebooks/netbooks from regular notebooks, so that the company can reduce the number of low-end Windows shipments.

This way, mid- to high-end mini-notebooks can benefit from the adoption of higher-end versions of Windows 7, recently announced for launch on October 22. In addition to this, Microsoft has also lifted the 3-app restriction on Windows 7 Starter Edition when there were plans to originally allow only three concurrent apps to run on the PC at any one time.