The upcoming OS is designed to improve the reliability and ease of use of Windows 98, but the improvements are mainly targeted at digital music, imaging and home-networking technologies that have taken off since the release of Windows 98, Second Edition, last year. Much like it predecessors Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me does not offer many pressing reasons for most users to upgrade. In the past, many of these new features would be offered via a service pack release. But Windows Me addresses the home market at a time when Microsoft faces more competition than ever for non-business PC users, analysts say. As the PC fades from dominance amid new wireless handheld devices, television set-top boxes, Internet terminals and Web pads, Microsoft must work to retain customers in a market that previously offered much fewer choices.
Evidence is mounting of an exodus away from the PC as the sole computing device in the home.
AOL, for example, recently announced it would work with PC maker Gateway to create appliances designed for surfing the Web based on the Linux operating system. Microsoft has hedged its bets by pushing its Windows CE operating system for non-PC devices, going so far as to slash developer's fees by 50 percent last week. The PC will still be around and owned by a lot of people, but there will be a much broader range of devices competing for that market. Windows Me will be released today to PC makers and CD-ROM manufacturers. This means that computers loaded with Windows Me will begin hitting stores in about six weeks.