Microsoft may delay the consumer roll-out of Vista again, Steve Ballmer has told press.
Whilst the January release for the consumer version was already a step back from the November/December timeframe that the corporate versions will be shipped out, that January date could be moved by "a few weeks" back into February, Ballmer said.
Apparently the reasoning is that resellers want time to clear their Christmas stocks before ramping up into Vista - and also to avoid a backlash from those who buy at Christmas to find a new version of Windows released a week later.
Analyst firm Goldman Sachs suggests that Microsoft loses around $150m in incremental earnings for every month that Vista is delayed. That's quite a lot of cash.
The problems with the consumer version of Vista appear to relate to the integrated Windows Media Center functionality. The Vista version of the software is more complex and is proving difficult to nail down, reports suggest. Business versions of the OS which lack the MCE functions will still ship in November, as planned - although it seems unlikely that big businesses are going to jump at the chance to get Vista running, given the litany of problems Microsoft has had bringing it to market.
Will you be picking up Vista? Do you even care about the MCE functions? Let us know over in the forums.
Whilst the January release for the consumer version was already a step back from the November/December timeframe that the corporate versions will be shipped out, that January date could be moved by "a few weeks" back into February, Ballmer said.
Apparently the reasoning is that resellers want time to clear their Christmas stocks before ramping up into Vista - and also to avoid a backlash from those who buy at Christmas to find a new version of Windows released a week later.
Analyst firm Goldman Sachs suggests that Microsoft loses around $150m in incremental earnings for every month that Vista is delayed. That's quite a lot of cash.
The problems with the consumer version of Vista appear to relate to the integrated Windows Media Center functionality. The Vista version of the software is more complex and is proving difficult to nail down, reports suggest. Business versions of the OS which lack the MCE functions will still ship in November, as planned - although it seems unlikely that big businesses are going to jump at the chance to get Vista running, given the litany of problems Microsoft has had bringing it to market.
Will you be picking up Vista? Do you even care about the MCE functions? Let us know over in the forums.
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