In line with the major US department store chains, which have already launched their Christmas season marketing barrages, Microsoft unveiled its holiday gift suggestions at its Holiday 2008 ‘In The (K)Now’ showcase in New York City.

MS representatives noted a recent US national telephone survey by StrategyOne Research which showed that two of every three American shoppers plan to spend less on year-end holiday gifts.

The survey also revealed that many families are planning nto pool their gift spending to buy one larger gist all family members can use and enjoy and that three quarters of those polled are favouring entertainment-oriented gifts.

In response to those findings, MS has issued a comprehensive ‘Gift Trends FactSheet’.

The MS holiday message also fits right in with its recent admonition to PC makers to stop pre-installing ‘demonstration’ software — known to retailers and users alike as ‘crapware’ — at the factory. It seems MS has been taking a lot of undeserved heat over extremely long Windows Vista start-up times caused, in reality, by long lists of factory-installed demo software titles set to start automatically every time Windows starts.