14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just announced that Touko Madobe is the name of its Windows 10 mascot, after picking from a long list of monikers sent by the local community.
As we first reported in late May, Microsoft launched a contest to choose the name of the new mascot, letting fans of the new operating system decide which one should be used for the new special anime mascot. In case you're wondering why exactly Windows 10 needs a mascot, it's because such a thing can really help promote the operating system in Japan, where turning to anime could prove a very successful marketing decision.
The contest that Microsoft launched in late June ended this week, so Touko Madobe is the name of the Windows 10 mascot. Her story is not at all that complicated: Touko is a 17-year-old school girl who traveled back in the past 100 years to join us in 2015 and try out Windows 10.
Why 2015? Microsoft says that Touko picked this year because this was one of the most important years in the tech industry, as Windows 10 officially launched on PCs and was expected to debut on smartphones later in the year. Unsurprisingly, Touko is a very tech-savvy user and is a big fan of online games.
Touko's family
Although our Japanese is not all that good, Touko stands for “ten,” so it's really obvious why Microsoft decided to go for this moniker.
And obviously, she's not the first anime character that Microsoft uses to promote its products in the Asian markets, so below is Touko's whole family which was born in 2009 when the company introduced Windows 7. Of course, expect more to be used in the coming future, especially for Microsoft Edge (whose marketing potential is terrific just because it replaces Internet Explorer - which has its own mascot).
Nanami Madobe (Windows 7) Claudia Madobe (Windows Azure) Yū and Ai Madobe (Windows 8) Inori Aizawa (Internet Explorer) Hikaru Aizawa (Microsoft Silverlight)