In a news release, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer labeled the three products, which are all available to large business customers starting Thursday, as "game-changing" products.

"We expect that more than 200 million people will be using at least one of these products by the end of 2007," Ballmer said.

Businesses, consumers and IT resellers have been waiting quite some time for Microsoft's next-generation products. Windows XP was released five years ago. And during that time, Microsoft has poured roughly $9 billion into Vista, which experienced some nagging delays, and the Office 2007 application suite.

Now industry observers will be watching closely to see how fast Microsoft's installed base will upgrade to the new products and whether a critical mass of customers will stay with what they have.

By: DocMemory
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