Microsoft unveils its first new logo in 25 years

With Microsoft apparently focused at unifying its branding prior to the scheduled launch of a number of new products later this year, the software giant's first new logo in 25 years was unveiled on Thursday.
The colorful new logo marks the first redesign of Microsoft's italic-style logo which the company has been using since 1987; and boasts the use of a new multi-hued square alongside an unadorned rendering of the company's name.
The new logo - which Microsoft introduced at its most recent store opening in Boston on Thursday - is fairly akin to that of Microsoft's current logo for its market-leading Windows software in terms of design; and it is already being used on the company's website.
By bringing on the new logo for its products, Microsoft is evidently hoping that the logo will unify the customers' experience of the bigwig software company - the way Apple's characteristic logo does -, especially in the wake of the forthcoming launch of the new Windows 8 operating system new Office and phone software this fall.

Noting that the Microsoft logo was last updated 25 years back, Jeff Hansen - general manager of Microsoft's brand strategy - said that the timing of the new logo is "perfect" because the scheduled "wave of new releases" re-imagines popular Microsoft products and represents "a new era" for the company. As such, according to Hansen, the company's logo has `evolved' to "visually accentuate this new beginning."