TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Microsoft to Delay Windows Vista Again -- Gartner

Microsoft to Delay Windows Vista Again -- Gartner

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Tue, 2 May 2006 19:35:18 -0500

Microsoft Corp.'s long- awaited release of the upgrade to its flagship
Windows operating system will likely be delayed again by at least
three months, research group Gartner Inc. said on Tuesday.

The research note, released to clients on Monday, said the new Windows
Vista operating system is too complex to be able to meet Microsoft's
targeted November release for volume license customers and January
launch for retail consumers.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company disagreed with the Gartner
report and it was still on track to meet its launch dates.

Vista is the first major overhaul of its operating system, which sits
on 90 percent of the world's computers and accounts for nearly a third
of Microsoft's total revenue, since Microsoft rolled out Windows XP
nearly five years ago.

Microsoft originally targeted a 2005 launch for the new Windows, then
pushed the release out to 2006 before announcing in March that Vista
would again be delayed to improve the product's quality.

Gartner targets a Windows Vista release in the April-June quarter of
2007, nine to 12 months after Microsoft conducts a second major test,
or "beta," release for Vista during the current quarter.

"Microsoft still wants to get it out as soon as possible, but slipping
from January to March is nowhere near as bad as slipping from shipping
before the holidays to after the holidays," a group of Gartner
analysts wrote in the report.

Gartner said Windows XP took five months to go from a second test
release to the start of production, but the magnitude of technological
improvement in Vista is closer to Windows 2000, which took 16 months
between the second test and production.

Once production starts, it usually takes between six- to eight-weeks
for PC manufacturers to load the operating system onto new computers,
Gartner said.

Microsoft shares were down 22 cents at $24.07 in afternoon trading on
Nasdaq.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

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