Boxed software's days look numbered with Microsoft's new online store

By Nancy Gohring

November 13, 2008 12:00 PM ET

Comments

(1)

Top Stories

IDG News Service - Microsoft Corp. has quietly launched a new online store where U.S. customers can buy its software and hardware products.

The U.S. Microsoft Store launched on Thursday, but customers in the U.K., Germany and Korea have already been using Microsoft store sites.

"With this launch, our customers in the U.S. are able to buy first-party software and hardware directly from Microsoft offered in a comprehensive online catalog," said Trevin Chow, Microsoft's senior program manager, in a blog post about the site launch.

Online shoppers in the U.S. have been able to buy and download some Microsoft software from the Windows Marketplace. But some Microsoft hardware, like the Xbox, that had been available only from third-party retailers is now for sale in the Microsoft Store.

People will be able to re-download software products that they buy for as long as Microsoft supports the product, which is typically five years, Chow said. Customers can also copy the software onto disks for future access.

Microsoft will store product keys for buyers, who will be able to access the keys online if they need to reinstall the software.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Jump to comments

Microsoft has quietly launched a new online store where U.S. customers can buy its software and hardware products.

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know

Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.

WHITE PAPER

Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009

The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.

WHITE PAPER

Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing

Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.