Vista to PC Makers: You're Welcome

The new Vista feature is a location where OEMs and system builders can place offers for goods or services, space some software and services companies would gladly pay for.

Windows Sidebar and the broader Aero user interface, which is more extensible than the UI of older Windows versions, also are prime real estate for facilitating commerce.

"The opportunity is only limited by the creativity of the people who want to use it," said Mark Margevicius, a Gartner research director.

Leonovo's Vista Welcome Center
I didn't see the OEM and system builder opportunity until yesterday, when I switched my main Vista test machine to a Lenovo ThinkPad T60p. While I have been using Windows Vista for about a year—and final code since November—the experience was limited to software distributed by Microsoft. I wanted to see an OEM preload, and Lenovo obliged by providing a loaner laptop; it's scheduled to go back in a few months.

The Lenovo test system has a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, a 100GB hard drive (but with only about 88GB available to the user), a 15.4-inch widescreen display with optimum resolution of 1680 x 1050, a 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5250 graphics processor, a multi-DVD recorder (which may include DVD-RAM) and a biometric reader. The computer shipped with Windows Vista Business. Lenovo calls this ThinkPad model a Mobile Workstation. Purchased new, today, as configured, the loaner system would cost about $1,750. By the way, this is the kind of configuration I would recommend to most businesses moving to Windows Vista and looking for the best TCO over the next three years or so.

Like Microsoft-distributed Vista, the ThinkPad's Windows preload opens the Welcome Center at bootup. The new feature provides the user with vital information about the computer, access to quick-start features and offers for additional products or services.

In retail Vista versions, Microsoft places about a half dozen links to its products or services in the Welcome Center. Lenovo puts in two dozen. Some icons link to software or utilities on the computer, while the vast majority lead to additional products or services for purchase. Lenovo offers most of the goodies, which could be good business for the company and good service for some customers.

The same space is available to other OEMs or to system builders, for offering additional products or services, either their own or paid-for-placement stuff from third parties.

"Default views are always valuable, so this is the equivalent for beach-front property to OEMs to provide links to stuff they want users to see," said Michael Gartenberg, a research director with JupiterResearch.

PC Makers' Bountiful Opportunity
The desktop bounties, as I call them, started in 2001, when Microsoft opened up the Windows desktop as a concession in its U.S. antitrust case. Software and services providers would pay OEMs to place icons with offers for additional products or services on the Windows desktop.

The process has continued with variations. In May 2006, Google paid Dell $1 billion to ship its search software and make its search engine the default on new PCs. Earlier this month, Lenovo and Microsoft announced a similar deal for Live software and search, although financial terms, if any, weren't disclosed.

The Welcome Center consolidates offers in a centralized place that also keeps them from getting lost in desktop icon clutter—or being easily chucked in the Windows Recycle Bin. Microsoft set up Welcome Center so that everyday users wouldn't delete or add icons. Users can choose not to run Welcome Center at startup, however.

From a commerce and customer-service perspective, the Welcome Center offers more potential to OEMs or system builders and their partners than does the Windows desktop. For starters, because icons are consolidated, they can make more offers. On the ThinkPad desktop, Lenovo's 24 icons would have overwhelmed the available real estate. They work much better in the Welcome Center.

Retailers could take advantage of the Welcome Center, too. There's no reason why Best Buy couldn't enter into an agreement with Gateway, HP or Sony to place a Geek Squad icon in the Welcome Center of PCs sold in its stores. It's not a question of if, but how much? Best Buy could offer OEMs a bounty, better shelf placement or some kind of co-marketing arrangement, including Geek Squad service fees going back to the PC manufacturer. There are a number of ways an arrangement could work, and it could just as easily be a CDW, CompUSA or system builder placing the icon and offering the service.

Prime Real Estate for Rent
Lenovo's sales offers don't stop at the Welcome Center. The company has used other Windows real estate to offer products or services. For example, the Windows Sidebar has a gadget displaying ThinkPad accessories. Clicking an item opens Internet Explorer 7 to a Lenovo sales page. Another example: In the Control Panel, for Power Options, there is a "Buy a battery" link in the side menu.

The Windows Sidebar is prime real estate, in some ways better than Welcome Center. The feature is persistent, assuming users don't turn it off, and is designed to provide personalized information. It's real estate some service providers or software developers might be willing to pay for.

What if ESPN paid just a buck per PC to, say, Dell, HP or Lenovo, for a sports score gadget that also advertised pay-per-view events? Similarly, OEMs could offer links from the Sidebar or Welcome Center to their own gadget libraries, offering stuff for which they could collect a bounty if downloaded.

Margevicius liked that idea, but suggested that OEMs and system builders go one step further.

"What about a subscription service through Windows Update?" he asked. One approach would be to refresh the Welcome Center with new offers, making it more dynamic and enticing users to keep the utility loading at Vista boot-up. Similarly, OEMs or system builders could offer new gadgets for selective download through Windows Update.

With what Vista offers, "It's feasible for [OEMs and system builders] to do all kinds of creative things," Margevicius emphasized.

Lenovo's use of the Control Panel shows other sales offer opportunities. While I suppose OEMs could have used the Windows XP side panels to offer goods or services, the operating system user interface wasn't as extensible as Vista, and Microsoft developed the software before the completion of its antitrust trial. Additionally, Microsoft has more incentive, in the face of the perceived Web 2.0 threat, to make Windows a more approachable commerce platform for its partners and their customers.

Why shouldn't a company like HP, which sells cameras and printers, offer sales links from Vista's Photo Gallery or Printers Control Panel? Certainly, such sales offers could overwhelm users if poorly done. Lenovo has done a pretty good job—particularly with the "Buy a battery" offer—of making a softball pitch. It's there, but not in the user's face.

The opportunity for targeted marketing cannot be understated, particularly for specialized entertainment or gaming PCs.

"Look at Google," Margevicius said. "No one anticipated ad placement was going to be so disruptive in the market." For creative OEMs and system builders, Vista offers another way of targeting customers, who also just happen to be persistent during the usable lifespan of the manufacturer's computer.

Whether Sidebar or Welcome Center, "That's going to become some expensive real estate at some point," Margevicius predicted.