Vista Launch Boosts Local PC Market
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By Liu Baijia  Microsoft's latest operating system Windows Vista hit the consumer market yesterday.  Those using Windows XP for almost six years, keen to embrace digital convergence, have been looking forward to Windows Vista, which offers richer and safer applications.
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Demand for the Vista Windows system and other products helps Microsoft to profits of $3.03bn, up 11% on last year.
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Aggressive prices and Microsoft's Vista spurred consumers to purchase more notebooks in the first quarter than expected.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft kicked off the day-long launch of itsÂ Vista operating system,Â Office 2007 suite, andÂ Exchange Server 2007Â applications for enterprise users with events at three locations in Asia Thursday. It's the first time that new versions of Windows and Office have been launched simultaneously since 1995 and that makes it one of Microsoft's biggest launches in years. The three products became available Thursday to volume licensing customers. Consumer versions won't be available until next year. "I'm super excited about this launch today. It's been a very long journey but now I can say that we have truly arrived," said Darren Huston, president and chief executive officer of Microsoft's Japan unit. The launch, which began with an event Sydney and was followed with similar events in Tokyo and Beijing, provided Microsoft a stage from which to talk-up the three products and showcase some of the businesses that have already committed to roll-outs. Microsoft Japan already has 57 companies that have said they'll roll out at least one of the three products. The list includes some big names like Sharp, Sanyo Electric, McDonalds Holdings Company (Japan), Nikon, major electric power generator Chubu Electric Power Co., computer game maker Capcom Co., and trading company Itochu. Interest from potential usersÂ in Japan has been high, said Huston. Of 5 million downloads and 1 billion user sessions conducted as part of the beta testing for Windows Vista, about 20 percent have been by users in Japan. The country accounts for about 10 percent of the global IT market. Speaking in Tokyo Jay Jamison, leader of Microsoft's Windows business group in Japan, said, "We are hopeful and optimistic that in Japan Windows Vista will be the most successful business OS release of Windows ever." In Australia companies including BDO Chartered Accountants & Advisers and alcoholic beverage manufacturer and distributor Lion Nathan have already begun testing the products. Later Thursday Microsoft will hold launch events in Munich, London, Paris, Toronto, and New York. A consumer version of Windows Vista is due on Jan. 30 next year in many countries. (Rodney Gedda of Computerworld Australia contributed to this report)
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NOTEBOOK sales dominated the local personal computer (PC) market last year yet again, driven by a rise in consumer demand and increased mobility usage in the workplace.
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By Ryan Blitstein, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Jan. 31--At long last, Vista is here. But Tuesday's San Francisco launch  of Microsoft's new computer operating system, which it hopes will  revolutionize the technology world, didn't pack much punch.
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US sales of computers carrying Microsoft's new operating system Vista soared in the week after it was launched, defying the expectations of analysts who gave Vista lackluster reviews.
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Sales of PCs with Vista Home Premium preinstalled comprised 70% of PC unit sales in the U.S. retail market, vs. 22% with the most basic version of Vista.
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(InfoWorld) - Adoption of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system will happen at a faster pace than any previous operating system release, a software analyst predicted last week. Up to 15 percent of PC users will move to Vista within the first year that the operating system is available, said David Mitchell, the software practice leader at Ovum Ltd. "That would make it the fastest-moving operating system ever," he said. By comparison, between 12 to 14 percent of users switched to Windows XP during the first year of its release, Mitchell said. Vista will gain traction in the market from quick adoption by both corporate and consumer users. For example, companies that participate in Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing program will automatically get upgrades to Vista, Mitchell said. "On the consumer side, there has been a bit of pent-up demand. Just look at the beta adoption in the consumer space -- it's very high," he said. Windows Vista will be available to business customers from November 30, with the operating system available to consumers from January. For users who buy a new computer before Vista is released to consumers, Microsoft is now shipping Vista upgrade coupons with computers that are sold with Windows XP. The upgrade coupons mean that Microsoft will not be hurt financially by missing the year-end holiday shopping season -- a peak time for computer sales. While corporate and consumer users will quickly move to Vista, the adoption prospects forÂ Office 2007 -- which goes on sale at the same time -- are less clear. While many users may now see no need to upgrade, once Office 2007 starts to make its way into companies users may find themselves upgrading to keep pace, Mitchell said. Overall, the rate of adoption of Office 2007 will be lower than Vista during the first year, Mitchell said. "You don't get the OEM drag effect. If you buy a new PC, you get a copy of Vista. You don't necessarily get a copy of Office," he said. Â
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Despite underwhelming consumers and being&#160;snubbed by enterprises,&#160;Windows Vista&#39;s numbers keep growing, with Microsoft&#160; saying Thursday that it has now shipped 88 million copies of the operating system, almost double the number of copies of XP in the same amount of time at its launch.In late July, Microsoft said it had hit the&#160;60 million shipment mark with Vista.Microsoft had previously said that it had&#160;shipped 20 million copies of Vista&#160;in its first month and 40 million copies of Vista in the first 100 days.Microsoft credited Vista with helping it&#160;beat Wall Street expectations&#160;and raise financial projections for the rest of the year. The company reported revenue of $13.76 billion for the first quarter ended Sept. 30, up 27 percent from the same quarter in 2006.Revenue in its client segment, which includes all consumer versions of Windows, was $4.14 billion, edging out the $4.11 billion in revenue from the Microsoft Business Division where Office is produced.CFO Chris Liddell credited strong sales in emerging markets, due in part to anti-piracy and legalization programs there.Client revenues, however, did not top those of the first calendar quarter this year, when Vista was officially launched. Revenues at that time were $5.32 billion.Three-quarters of the copies sold of Vista were higher-priced &#39;premium&#39; versions, compared to 59 percent of the copies of Windows -- primarily XP -- available a year ago.The 88 million figure mostly includes Vista-installed PCs bought by consumers and small businesses, as well as packaged copies of Vista sold in stores or online.It does exclude the tens of millions of Windows corporate volume licenses. There, many enterprises continue to hold off on deploying Vista, acknowledged CFO Chris Liddell, though he expects them to start deploying it when Vista Service Pack 1&#39;s arrival in the first quarter of next year.Nevertheless, revenue from companies renewing their volume licenses for Windows, which gives them the right to upgrade to Vista, was up 27 percent.Other highlights from the statistics:-- Unit sales of Windows Server&#39;s premium enterprise edition were up 35 percent year-over-year;-- A release candidate for Windows Server 2008 has been downloaded more than one million times in its first month;-- Unit and revenue growth of SQL Server were both up more than 15 percent;-- Halo 3 generated $330 million in revenue;-- Xbox 360 console unit sales increased 90 percent, driven by a price cut in August and Halo 3-related demand;-- Client revenues, including those for Vista, are expected to grow 62-64 percent year-over-year in the current fiscal Q2, or 13-14 percent excluding certain revenue deferrals in the prior year;-- Microsoft Business Division revenues, including those for Office, are expected to grow 15-16 percent in Q2 after normalizing for impact of technology guarantees and pre-shipment deferrals in the prior year;-- A beta version of Office Communications Server has been downloaded 80,000 times;-- There are 10,000 customers in the Customer Technical Preview (CTP) program for PerformancePoint Server, its new business intelligence offering.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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By Robert Evatt, Tulsa World, Okla.  Jan. 31--After 5 1/2 years, Microsoft Corp. finally unleashed its new computer operating system, Windows Vista, at local stores Tuesday.
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Higher-end Home version of the Microsoft OS appears in PCs sold in first week of Vista's availability.
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Hewlett-Packard surged ahead in the PC market last year a new report confirms.
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(InfoWorld) - Thursday was finally windows Vista launch day. But though banners were flying in downtown Manhattan on the big day, celebrating the launch of Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007, CEO Steve Ballmer made it clear that the company is anxious to move on, while business customers pegged for Vista adoption wondered whether there was really much to celebrate. âThereâs a bunch of work we still need to do,â Ballmer said of the next Windows client OS. Supporting the shift from single-core to multicore chips and improvements in network infrastructure are priorities. Microsoft also wants to add more features to meet the needs of IT administrators, software developers and end-users. âHow we do software plus service within Windows is going to continue to be a big theme,â Ballmer said. Enterprise customers were wary. âSure itâs a big day for Microsoft, but what are we really getting?â asks Paul Lindo, an independent New York IT consultant. âWith all the delays and features being dropped, this looks to me like it might just be Windows XP with a prettier face.â Vista suffered several features âadjustmentsâ as well as a lengthier-than-expected road to shrink, including the infamous 2004 dumping of WinFS and a ground-up re-programming effort. But now that the day is finally here, Microsoft is well pleased with its new OS offering. âIt may have been a long road, but watching how our early adopters are responding to the platform, we know weâve got a winner,â said Brad Goldberg, Microsoftâs general manager of client product management. Responding to views such as Lindoâs, Goldberg said he remained assured. âVista was designed specifically to give business users recognizable benefits over the last generation platform,â he said. âThat includes productivity, security, networking and noticeably less reliance on IT.â Those last two items especially represent significant development efforts, covering the new UAC authentication model, updated internal diagnostics (including error messages that actually speak English), a completely revamped networking client and new IT tools such as the Reliability Monitor -- a quick dashboard of system reliability. These features were built specifically so users would spend less time talking to the help desk, thus decreasing overall IT spending. Windows is far better prepared for initial deployment than its predecessors, Goldberg said, citing more than a year of overall QA effort, by far the longest QA period in Microsoftâs history. Despite the enterprise focus of some features, it will still be consumers who lead the charge on Vista adoption. According to a report released by IDC last week, Vista will account for 90 percent of new Windows client deployments in 2007 by home users, compared with just 35 percent of new Windows client deployments by businesses.
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The wait is over. It's official. Retail store shelves are adorned with rows of stylized boxes that contain the various flavors of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 productivity suite. Vista became available at more than 39,000 retail stores in more than 70 countries on Tuesday with all the fanfare Microsoft could muster.
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While it may seem that the launch of Vista is off to a hyped start with this week's launch, there's a reason for that: As of December, 60% of consumers had not even heard of the new OS, according to Forrester Research.
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US reseller urges 'case-by-case' approach Windows Vista appears to be gaining ground among organisations, with small businesses (SMBs) proving particularly keen to adopt the software giant's latest operating system, according to a new report.â¦