Vista Adoption Rate Predicted to Outpace Windows XP
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Expected to be fastest-moving operating system ever, analyst says.
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Year of living dangerously Windows Vista may be "dramatically more secure" than Windows XP but Internet Explorer is destined to remain Windows' Achilles' heel.â¦
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It was indeed an astounding quarter for Microsoft, with operating income having grown last quarter at an annual rate of 32%. A big part of that growth is attributable to Windows Vista. But does the fact that customers are adopting it truly signal that customers are embracing it? Yesterday, the company's chief financial executives offered some very revealing data.
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Microsoft's long, strange trip with Windows Vista came closer to an end Friday as the company released the first release candidate of its next-generation operating system. Jim Allchin made the announcement in an e-mail to TechNet subscribers.
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Windows Vista lands in stores Tuesday, more than five years after its predecessor Windows XP debuted. With that much time for Microsoft to rewrite its operating system, you might expect it to be a sharp break from the Windows we've known.
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Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O announced on   Tuesday U.S. prices for Windows Vista, the long-awaited new   version of the operating system that sits on more than 90   percent of the world's personal computers.
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The Wow starts now... It might have had a mixed response from critics but Vista is being credited with a big jump in US retail computer sales. The launch of Microsoft's latest operating system apparently helped PC sales jump 173 per cent compared to the week before.â¦
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A Microsoft study finds that total cost of ownership for Windows Vista on mobile PCs is $605 less annually than Windows XP.
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(InfoWorld) - Although Microsoft may not have the first service pack for Windows Vista ready at the end of this year as some expected, financial analysts say that a delay should not have a negative effect on enterprise adoption of the OS. Many large enterprise customers have said they will wait for the first service pack for Vista to deploy the software across their companies. Some were expecting SP1 before the end of the year after Microsoft Senior Vice President Bob Muglia said in a published report last November it would be released with Windows Server, code-named Longhorn, due by the end of 2007. However, rumors swirled last week that the release of the pack would be pushed into 2008 after Microsoft said in a court filing dated June 19 it would have only a test version of Vista SP1 out before the end of the year. According to the document, filed as part of the ongoing antitrust case with the U.S. Department of Justice, the software is to be released by then to answerÂ a complaint by GoogleÂ thatÂ the OS's built-in desktop search capability interferes with the use of Google's competing search technology. The rumors caused investors to worry about enterprise adoption of Vista being pushed further out, and company stock declined 2.4 percent Friday, opening at $30.03 and closing at $29.54. UBS Investment Research analyst Heather Bellini tried to allay investor fears in a research note published Monday, saying that the end-of-the-year release of a beta listed in the document "probably represents a 'drop-dead' date." "The company most likely has accounted for the possibility of unforeseen delays in this timing," according to Bellini's note. "As such, we believe Vista SP1 could be available sometime before the end of the year barring any material delays." Andrew Brust, chief, new technology, for consulting firm and Microsoft partner Twentysix New York, who is familiar with the company's plans, said he also believes Microsoft will have SP1 out the door before the end of 2007. He would not disclose specifics, but Brust said that what he's heard "contradicts the chatter." "Microsoft is quite aware of the need to get an SP out there; I promise you that," he saidÂ Monday. Through its public relations team, Microsoft said Monday that it has never committed to a release date for SP1 and confirmed the company will be releasing test builds of the software from now throughout the end of the year. Despite Muglia's comments last year, even a 2008 release for Vista SP1 should not be considered a delay because the company never announced a firm date for release, Microsoft said. Enterprises are most likely waiting for the release of Windows Server Longhorn -- now known by its official name, Windows Server 2008 -- before deploying Vista, making SP1 less relevant to enterprise deployment than some think, according to a research note from Citigroup Global Markets.
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Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it expects to sell twice as many copies of its new Vista PC operating system in its first year on sale compared with the launch of its last major upgrade, Windows XP, in 2001.
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100 million computers are predicted to be running Microsoft's new operating system, Vista, within the first year. Currently 95 per cent of the world's computers run Microsoft operating systems, but Vista is the first major overhaul in six years.
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Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, a metrics company reports.
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Microsoft should keep Windows XP available until at least 2009, not end the majority of sales on June 30 as currently planned, said analysts at Gartner and The Burton Group. ?A good rule of thumb in any OS transition is that you have to have the original and new products available for at least two years to handle customer [migration] needs,? said Richard Jones, a Burton Group vice president and service director. But Microsoft gave customers just 11 months in its original plan, in which new XP licenses would have ended on Dec. 31, and even the additional six months that Microsoft granted when it changed the date to June 30 is not enough, he said.?It would be wise for XP to be available until the end of 2008,? concurred Michael Silver, a research vice president at Gartner. Even though Microsoft does a good job of addressing application compatibility, those efforts miss homegrown applications and applications from minor and defunct software companies. That?s why a two-year transition period is more sensible, Silver said.[Learn whether you can get XP after the June 30 cut-off sales date ]Jones said Microsoft may have pushed a too-aggressive transition schedule because of how long it took to release Vista, a delay that deprived it of new earnings. ?Microsoft is up against a rock, with Vista coming out seven years after XP?s release. But it?s their fault it took seven years, not my fault,? he said, adding that users should not be forced to rush their transition because of Microsoft?s internal delays.Microsoft says it?s listening Microsoft has not rejected the possibility of extending XP?s availability beyond June 30, saying it will listen to customer and partner feedback. "That's what informed our decision to extend the availability of XP initially and what will continue to guide us," a Microsoft spokesperson told Computerworld Australia when asked the company?s reaction to InfoWorld?s ?Save XP? petition effort asking that XP be kept on sale indefinitely. That petition has gathered more than 79,000 signatures. (Microsoft has not responded to InfoWorld?s request for a reaction to that petition.)?It wouldn?t surprise me if Microsoft backed away from its June 30 cut-off date for XP if a sizable number of XP customers continue to complain,? said Ovum analyst Dwight Davis, ?especially if the company sees evidence of customers abandoning Windows altogether rather than moving to Vista. Microsoft in the past has sometimes drawn lines in the sand [such as with some onerous licensing model changes a few years ago], but then relented to customer pressure and softened its positioning,? he noted.?Microsoft has a good handle on what the customer attitudes are, and if in June it?s clear that they?re not ready to move to Vista, I wouldn?t be surprised if it keeps XP available longer,? said Al Gillen, a research vice president at IDC. He noted that Microsoft was flexible in its end-of-life deadlines for Windows NT Workstation, 2000, and XP. ?I don?t think an online petition is the right method? to get XP?s life extended, Gillen added. Instead, he advised customers to lobby Microsoft through its own channels, such as through the feedback section of the company?s site and via mechanisms such as forums available to enterprise site licensees and developers.An ?XP classic? mode for Vista? One complaint that many users have is that Vista?s UI is significantly different from XP?s for no obvious reason. The Burton Group?s Jones said it would have been good for Microsoft to have included a UI compatibility mode in Vista so XP users could have kept their familiar interface. ?For getting normal work done, you don?t need the Aero interface,? he said.The last time Microsoft significantly changed the user interface was in 1999, when it offered Windows 2000 to replace Windows 98 and Millennium, and there are millions of people who know no other interface, Jones noted. By contrast, PC users at the time had been through two major interface changes in just five years, from DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. ?Today, there are very few people who have not used XP before,? he added, so the impact of a changed UI is greater. He notes that Microsoft did not get significant adoption of Microsoft Word until it added WordPerfect shortcut support, and he said an XP UI option in Vista would boost Vista migration. But he noted that it may be too hard for Microsoft to add such a feature now and instead should have done so as part of initial Vista planning.Ovum?s Davis also has doubts as to whether an XP compatibility mode would be doable today. ?I suspect that approach would raise technical complexity and compatibility issues,? he said. But he understands why some people would have wanted such an option: ?The difficulties that new users and former XP users experience when learning the Vista interface tend to suggest that -- for all of Microsoft?s extensive customer usability research -- the company?s perspective on what is intuitive is still somewhat removed from the reality of many users? experience.?Gartner?s Silver said that Vista?s UI is not that big a deal for most users, so he would not favor a UI compatibility mode. ?I think that issue is overstated,? he said. A bigger concern is the UI transition that Office 2007 forces, given its adoption of the nearly menu-less approach of Internet Explorer 7, which hides capabilities from users and makes it hard for them to know what to do or where to do it.Ready or not, prepare for Vista Regardless of whether Microsoft keeps XP around longer than June 30, all four analysts said that users should make the switch. The question is when, not whether.Gartner?s Silver recommended that most businesses wait until spring 2009, after Microsoft has issued more updates and software providers have had more time to update their applications.A business not comfortable with Vista could continue to use XP for another four years, Silver said, since Microsoft will continue to support the OS with security updates until April 2014. The Burton Group?s Jones said a good way to judge the right time to switch is when users start complaining they have Vista at home and want it at work. Such internal pressure is what got XP into enterprises during the transitions from Windows 98 and 2000, and gave IT the comfort that users were ready for the change, he said.Gartner?s Silver does not believe it is wise to hang on to XP in hopes that Windows 7 is a more appealing OS than Vista. Even if Windows 7 ships in late 2011, as currently expected, it will take two years for the OS to become stable and software and hardware to be made compatible. Should Windows 7 be delayed, XP users at that point will find themselves outside the security support window, he noted. That would be too dangerous for larger companies, because their own internal transition times would add another year or two to the effort once they were comfortable with a Windows 7 transition.IDC?s Gillen said businesses today should buy Vista Business or Vista Ultimate on all new PCs today, even if they use the ?downgrade? rights that let them put XP Pro on those systems instead. (These rights do not extend to other versions of Vista.) By buying either of those Vista versions now, they can have XP today and upgrade to Vista later without having to buy a separate Vista license when they do upgrade. Small businesses may not realize they have this option, Gillen noted.Consumer users have the fewest options, adds Gillen. If they buy a PC with any Vista version other than Business or Ultimate, they won?t have ?downgrade? rights to XP Pro, nor will they be able to get new XP licenses after June 30 through retail stores or online sellers like Dell or Hewlett-Packard.
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InfoWorld - Although Microsoft may not have the first service pack for Windows Vista ready at the end of this year as some expected, financial analysts say that a delay should not have a negative effect on enterprise adoption of the OS.
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(InfoWorld) - PCs running Microsoft'sÂ new Windows Vista operating systemÂ got a cool response from consumers in Japan during their first month on sale, according to data published Tuesday. Sales of desktop and laptop computers from brand-name makers in February were 1.2 percent higher than the same month in 2006, said BCN. The company came up with its figure after analyzing point-of-sales system data from about 560 specialist PC and electronics shops that are part of 12 retail chains. The entire market was up 6 percent thanks to better demand for white-box PCs made by computer stores and for motherboards. The jump in the brand-market was smaller than expected by market watchers, who thought the launch of the long-awaited operating system on Jan. 30 would give the PC market more of a kick. Better sales had been expected in part because consumers had shown a lack of interest in new PCs in the months prior to Vista's launch. In October, sales were down 21 percent compared to the previous year. In November, they were 22 percent lower, in December 19 percent down and in January 14 percent below the same month in 2006. The little strength there was in the brand-name market came from increased sales of laptops, sales of which were up 9.3 percent on a unit basis for the month, said BCN. The desktop sector was down 13.8 percent on the year. Despite the apparently lackluster response from Japanese consumers, Microsoft and two major PC makers have in the last 24 hours given the Vista launch votes of confidence. "We're actually pretty happy with how the launch has gone so far," said Darren Huston, president and CEO of Microsoft's Japan unit, at a news conference on Monday. The same day Walt Mayo, corporate director of Dell Japan's home and business sales division, said in an interview that the Vista launch has been "good overall." On Tuesday Richard Walker, head of Hewlett Packard's consumer PC division, said sales of Vista PCs were "strong" in the global market. He didn't have any data specific to the Japanese market. "We're definitely ahead of our plan as far as Vista is concerned," he said. Among Vista sales demand for the premium versions has been greater than anticipated, said Microsoft's Huston. "That was actually a good, positive surprise for us," he said.
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Microsoft Corp.  said on  Thursday that more than 200 million users will be using one of  its new products -- including its highly-anticipated Windows  Vista operating system, Office 2007 software suite and Exchange  server -- by the end of 2007.
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(InfoWorld) - Windows Vista will be the most secure operating system that Microsoft Corp. has released, a company executive said Tuesday at a Vista launch event in Washington, D.C. Microsoft has listened to feedback from users, who disagreed with the decision to have some security features turned off by default in Windows XP, said Bill Veghte, Microsoft's corporate vice president for North America. "I won't mince words," Veghte said to an audience of nearly 3,000 people. "Every single time we had a trade-off between application compatibility or security, we went with security." ButÂ Windows VistaÂ also includes a feature that shows users which applications have problems after switching from an earlier version of Windows and the fixes that are available for those issues, Veghte said. Microsoft will also submit its Office SharePoint Server 2007 for U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) certification for electronic records management, Veghte said. Microsoft, working with partner Applied Information Sciences Inc., expects to have SharePoint Service compliant with DOD 5015.2 standard in May. The DOD standard focuses on secure records handling, requiring encryption on Web-based applications, the ability to schedule records to expire, and the ability to restrict user access to documents. Applied has developed a Records Management Center add-on pack to SharePoint Server, part of the MicrosoftÂ Office 2007 suite released Tuesday along with Vista. That add-on will allow users to comply with the DOD standard and have "military-grade" records management, said Russ Stalters, Applied's chief technology officer. The add-on package will allow customers to collaborate using SharePoint without buying third-party records-management software, as SharePoint users have had to do in the past, Stalters said. By complying with the DOD standard, the software package "sets the bar" for records management for customers in highly regulated industries, he said. In addition to the DOD compliance, Microsoft's new offerings contain several new security features, Veghte said in his speech. Microsoft has the responsibility of setting the standards for secure defaults and architecture in Vista, he said. Hackers are not standing still, and "we have to keep pace," he said. Among the new security features in Vista: -- System administrators can stop PCs from allowing USB (Universal Serial Bus) drives or other peripherals to be connected. -- Vista and Internet Explorer will warn users when a Web site attempts to install dangerous code. -- An antiphishing site, updated hourly, will warn users of e-mail messages that attempt to trick them into giving up their personal information. -- If a user manages to download malware, the Windows Defender security software is designed to block it from doing damage. -- The Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Vista will allow users to encrypt hard drives. Vista's BitLocker Drive Encryption feature is an attempt to address continuing problems with data breaches, often caused by lost laptops, Veghte said. About 660,000 laptops were lost or stolen in the U.S. in 2006, he said, leading to a lot of stories about such incidents that "ended up on the front page" of major newspapers.