Windows95 was duly launched in Spain on September 5 by Microsoft Corp chief executive Bill Gates himself. The venue was a Madrid theatre into which 800 special guests and 150 journalists had crowded. Gates commented that although Spain had migrated from MS-DOS to Windows a little later than other countries, it was now running shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world, and he was therefore confident that Windows95 would also be an immediate success in Spain. Microsoft has predicted 800,000 users in Spain by the end of August 1996. Behind the scenes, Microsoft has 1,500 technicians and 2,500 commercial distributors who had been trained over the four months prior to the launch to assist users, in addition to a Madrid helpline. Various stores opened their doors at midnight offering freebies to the first buyers, who had to pay $158 for the Spanish version of Windows95 – $40 more than what it costs in the US. The special upgrade price in Spain is $134. According to the director of sales and marketing for Microsoft Iberica SA, Victor Costa, the price differential is due to translation costs, the smaller volume of production and Spain’s high levels of piracy. Microsoft has managed to put a few noses out of joint in Galicia, NW Spain, by making the new operating system available in the Castilian, Catalan and Basque languages, but not in Galician. To coincide with Windows95 fever, many manufacturers have slashed the prices of their computers, in some cases by as much as 32%, although they all deny that the new operating system has influenced their plans. Compaq Computer Corp cut the prices of its desktops by between 5% and 20%, so that a Prolinea SL 5/75 M-420, 420Mb disk, 8Mb RAM and 256Kb cache, fell 16% to $1,706, the SL 5/90 M-720 was down 20% to $2,063. Hewlett- Packard Co showed its teeth by cutting the prices of all its desktops and the Omnibook portables by 15% to 32%, leading HP Espana’s marketing director for personal computers and Portables, Alberto Mazagatos, to claim that Hewlett thereby becomes 2% to 6% cheaper than Compaq and IBM. Mazagatos maintains that Hewlett- Packard’s loss in revenue per unit will be offset by increased sales in the market, where clones will feel the pinch. IBM Corp, for its part, cut prices of its PC 300 and PC 700 desktops by 19% to 26%, although Personal Systems sales director Javier Sada commented that the price wars do the manufacturer and end-user no favours at all: Manufacturers suffer when they come to see their results, while end-users can be affected by a deterioration in after-sales service, he warned. Digital Equipment Corp had already cut prices of its Venturis and Celebris desktops by 20% in July, only to drop them a further 5% in response to Compaq Computer Corp in August. The HiNote portable line was also down 20%. Apple Computer Inc, which launched its new PowerMac line in Spain on September 12, stated that its intention is to remain aloof from the price wars. Fujitsu Espana SA also prefers to keep away from the fray, claiming that its policy is to lower prices whenever the price of components comes down.
