Microsoft’s announcement today that the consumer version of Vista won’t be ready until January 2007 is one of the more shocking pieces of news to come out of Redmond in recent years.
Vista has been delayed year after year — and now it’s missing the holiday season by one month. Needless to say, PC makers will not be amused; it means that many people will hold off buying a new PC this holiday season, because they won’t want to be stuck with an old OS.
It’ll also mean less revenue for Microsoft, because a new operating system spurs people to buy new PCs, which means more copies of Windows sold.
This one has me scratching my head. The business version will be ready in November, and it’s not supposed to be much different than the consumer version. So why the delay?
Frankly, I don’t get it. So if you have thoughts, post them here. Maybe together we can figure it out.
Well maybe they found a glitch in Vista? Or they just want to make sure it has less bug than XP? Or they come up with a new marketing strategy again.
Maybe they're having issues related to Digital Restrictions Management, or they want to bundle some consumer-oriented apps (like an iTunes wannabe).
Or we just don't care, because we all want to run a *nix-based system?
Maybe they're waiting for Apple to release a Dev Preview of Leopard? ;-)
Probably needed more time to copy the new version of OS X that's supposed to come out in August or thereabout. Gotta know what the competition is offering before you can "beat" (read: copy) them.
Yeah, it's absolutely shocking. Who's ever heard of slipping a software schedule? Especially not Microsoft! It's a SCANDAL, I tell you.
Nuts. People that want or need new computers will buy new computers. It's not like someone was only getting a computer because it was Christmas. That would just be a convenient time to include it in the burgeoning credit card balance. I'd expect that the amount of sales missed by this slippage will be completely neglible.
Also, let's assume that there would be some amount of lost sales. That loss might be more than offset by the potential losses that could be incurred if this extremely high-profile launch were to be marred by a bug-infested or insecure product.
I have more serious worries in my life than a software schedule slip especially when I am quite satisfied with Windows XP Pro.
Frankly, I don't care. Vista won't run on my desktop or laptop machines at home. The desktop now runs Linux, and the laptop runs XP and will stay that way until it dies. My work laptop is a Mac, my new desktop at home is a Mac, and I plan on ignoring Vista entirely.
With the pervasive presence of global fascism the threat to capitalists is clear: do what we tell you or we'll shoot!
I won't buy it right away anyway. Anyone who buys Vista in the first year it is out is asking for trouble.