The unthinkable has happened: Microsoft has delayed Windows Vista yet again.
Microsoft Corp. today confirmed that Windows Vista, the next generation of the Windows client operating system, is on target to go into broad consumer beta to approximately 2 million users in the second quarter of 2006.
Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division, announced on March 21 during a conference call that Microsoft is now planning to roll out Windows Vista in two stages.
Microsoft is on track to complete the product this year, with business availability in November 2006 and broad consumer availability in January 2007.
Until March 21, Microsoft officials had said Vista would be ready to ship in time for the holiday 2006 selling season.
Microsoft also intends to release all six of Vista's core editions to manufacturing at the same time in November, Allchin said. But PCs with the consumer versions preinstalled won't go on sale until January.
The consumer editions of Vista, which Allchin said have not changed, are Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Ultimate. The business editions--Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise--will be available through volume licensing in November.
Microsoft said that Vista's delay won't affect the release of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP in the second half of the year. IE 7 will ship as a feature of Vista, and Microsoft had previously said that the version of IE 7 for XP would be released at the same time as the new OS.
Reasons For Delay :
Allchin would not give specific reasons for Vista's delay, but he said that it involves a quality issue and that partners had requested the delay. He said that the partners wanted Microsoft to provide them with a clear date for release because Microsoft seemed unlikely to have the OS ready in time for them to ship it on hardware by late November. That is when the busy U.S. Christmas holiday buying season begins; Microsoft had originally targeted that time for the release of Vista PCs.
"We're just trying to be responsive to their concerns and also be forthright about where we are in terms of being a few weeks late for quality," Allchin said.
But at least one analyst suggested that Microsoft should be worried, since the delay will have a major affect on Microsoft's entire partner ecosystem.
"They will miss out on the lucrative holiday season, and this move will definitely slow down growth in the PC industry," said Sam Bhavnani, a principal analyst with Current Analysis, via e-mail. "The impact is far reaching and will have a significant impact on computer manufacturers, resellers and ingredient players."
Microsoft said that it is not concerned about rival Apple Computer capitalizing on Vista's delay. The company thinks that customers will still buy Vista simply because of the rich features it will provide.
Reactions :
A number of stalwart Microsoft testers said they considered the delay in the name of quality as a net positive.
“We strongly support Microsoft’s decision to prioritize quality in determining the schedule for Windows Vista,†said Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the Personal Systems Group at Hewlett Packard. “A January launch of Windows Vista allows us to execute in a consistent way throughout the holidays, and will provide the right opportunity for a large, exciting launch industrywide after the New Year.â€
Said Ron Boire, executive vice president and general merchandising manager at Best Buy, “When people come to our stores to buy a new PC or new software for their PC, we want to be able to offer them a broad set of choices, immediate availability and a great retail experience. We agree with Microsoft that it’s best to do this right  and in this case it’s delivering Windows Vista-based PCs with confidence in January 2007.â€
"I agree that Microsoft couldn't achieve the level of quality wanted within that short time frame, like Allchin said. The performance, user interface and driver compatibility are not as up to speed as they needed to be. The progress was too slow to launch the product in November," said Sandro Villinger, Webmaster for Windows Tweaks Web site and a Microsoft Windows Most Valuable Professional (MVP).
"The holiday buying season is not the end-all, be-all," added Robert McLaws, president and chief software architect with Interscape Technologies, the company behind the LonghornBlogs.com Web site.. "It might hurt garage computer shops down the street more than the Dells and HPs (Hewlett Packards)."
Wall Street reacted negatively to the news, as shares of Microsoft and hardware partners Dell and Hewlett-Packard slipped in after-hours trading Tuesday.
Financial analysts noted that the news will force hardware partners that were expecting a holiday surge from Vista PC sales to revise their financial expectations.
CTP's :
Microsoft is on target to release another Community Technology Preview of Vista by the end of June, completing the Beta 2 process of the OS, Allchin said. At this point, Vista is already feature-complete, and any tweaks made to the OS before its final release will be for quality, he said.
"It's not new work that we're adding," Allchin said. "It's simply...[work in] continuing to make this the most safe and secure system that's ever been."
hyeah: