CHICAGO, April 18, 2000 — In a keynote address at Windows World/Comdex, Microsoft Platform Group vice president Tod Nielsen announced that over 1.5 million copies of Windows 2000 have been licensed since its launch on February 17 — selling at four times the rate of Windows NT 4.0. This figure does not include any of the enterprise agreements purchased by Microsoft’s largest customers worldwide. Nielsen noted that the reliability and quality of Windows 2000 is yielding the lowest number of support calls per unit sold of any Windows operating system in history. In addition, Netcraft’s most recent surveys show that over 64,000 Web sites now run on Windows 2000.
“By enabling Windows to scale from hand-held devices to enterprise datacenters, as well as meeting the needs of customers in between, over 65 vendors are here highlighting the incredible openness of the Windows platform in their own solutions to deliver unique, best-of-breed solutions to consumers, home users and businesses of all sizes,” said Nielsen.
Showing further momentum for Windows 2000, Stratus Computer yesterday announced that its new Stratus ftServer family delivers 99.999 percent hardware availability to the Windows 2000 platform in its baseline configurations. The operating system is being deployed in Internet, e-commerce and business infrastructure applications where system downtime is costly in terms of revenue and customer loss, depressed market capitalization, competitive disadvantage and business viability. Thus, the “five nine” capability — which translates to less than five minutes of downtime per year — is especially significant to businesses. More advanced configurations will offer 99.9999 percent hardware availability — less than one minute of downtime — a level of fault tolerance never before offered in any system.
Nielsen highlighted Sequencia Corp.’s process Point.com e-hub in his keynote address as an example of Windows DNA 2000-based business-to-business e-commerce. The multimedia presentation demonstrated how process Point.com will enable process manufacturing companies to bring new products to market faster, increase market share and unlock significant hidden value in manufacturing assets.
“We chose process Point.com to demonstrate because it’s an excellent example of how Microsoft’s e-commerce technologies are being used to invent new business models in the process industry business-to-business marketplace,” Nielsen said.
In addition, Nielsen addressed the simplification of consumers’ computing experiences with Windows Millennium Edition. Its focus is primarily on four key areas: The Online Experience; Digital Media and Entertainment; Home Networking; and PC Health.
“To attend an industry tradeshow such as Windows World/Comdex and see the incredible innovation that the Windows platform has spurred is overwhelming,” Nielsen said.
