Ina Fried
Microsoft announced a delay of Windows Vista on Tuesday that will mean PCs with the new operating system won't go on sale until January.
The software maker said it will still wrap up development of the operating system this year and make it available to volume licensing customers in November. However, Microsoft said that a delay of a few weeks in Vista's schedule meant that some PC makers would be able to launch this year and others would not. As a result, Windows chief Jim Allchin said the company is delaying the broad launch of the product until January.
"We needed just a few more weeks, and that put us in a bubble... where some partners would be impacted more than others," Allchin said in a conference call with reporters and analysts.
Allchin said that although PC makers were not universal in wanting the delay, there were concerns from some companies that they could not ensure a fourth-quarter launch if Microsoft pushed back its development schedule even slightly.
Analysts have been warning that Microsoft's schedule left little room for error if it was to make a fourth-quarter launch.
The postponement is the latest setback for Vista. Microsoft scaled back several key features of the operating system last year in order to try to ensure a 2006 release. The operating system, which has been in development for years, was delayed by, among other things, the fact that Microsoft had to put so much time and testing effort into Windows XP Service Pack 2, a largely security-oriented upgrade to the current version of Windows.
As recently as January, Allchin expressed confidence that Microsoft would make its deadline, although he reiterated his caveat that quality issues could yet lead to a postponement.
Microsoft does not expect the move to affect this year's overall PC sales, Allchin said.
"There's no change to the PC forecast from our perspective," Allchin said. "You can ask the partners what they think."
Allchin also said the product will still launch in Microsoft's next fiscal year, which begins in July, meaning that Microsoft's overall business for next year shouldn't be affected.
The delay would likely hurt retail PC vendors the most, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis with NPD Techworld. Dell, which sells most of its PCs directly, could probably handle a delay of a few weeks without too much trouble. Hewlett-Packard and Gateway, on the other hand, have to have their PCs ready for retail partners weeks in advance of when they will actually go on sale, and can't change gears as quickly, he said.
"It scares you," Baker said, when asked about the impact of the delay on fourth-quarter PC sales. The PC industry's largest quarter of the year always comes around the Christmas shopping season, and expectations were high for that period this year, given the expected introduction of the new operating system.
Allchin said some of the additional time was for ensuring security levels, and the company is also working on ironing out usability issues.
"We're trying to crank up the security level higher than ever," Allchin said. "This came down to a few weeks. We're trying to do the responsible thing here."
Microsoft released its most recent test version of Vista in February. Late that month, the company also announced plans for six distinct editions of the operating system.
Microsoft had hoped to have a massive marketing push around Vista and Office 2007, which is slated for the second half of this year. It is not immediately clear how the delay will affect those plans.
Allchin, whose official title is co-president of Microsoft's platform, products and services division, is slated to retire later this year.
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