This is a case of "when everything else fails... turn to porn". At least this is the marketing strategy that a Japanese retailer has implemented in order to catalyze Windows Vista sales. Truth be told , Vista sales are lagging behind those of Windows XP. This despite the fact that Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer was predicting that Windows Vista would outperform XP by 2 to 1.

After more than a month of commercial availability, this is obviously not the case. Windows Vista did manage to erode Windows XP's market share, but at the end of the first month from the launch, the latest Microsoft operating system stopped short of 1% of the OS market.

However, Microsoft cannot directly be blamed for the poor market performance delivered by Vista. The Redmond Company has managed to throw no less than $500 million at the marketing campaign for the operating system. Nevertheless, this has not impacted Vista sales as Microsoft predicted.

But could the answer to Microsoft's predicament come all the way from Japan? The Japanese people are well known for their mature sexual perspective, just to use a euphemism, and for the use of erotica in art. And sex sells, that mush is axiomatic by now.
Akihabara Stores have simply taken this marketing axiom to a new level and integrated pornography in the advertisements for Windows Vista. According to Akibablog (Japanese content only) the Akihabara retailer has used Hentai porn in the image included on the left that illustrates the Windows Vista Aero interface. As of yet, there have been no reports as how this strategy has affected sales.