The adoption of Vista among corporate customers is expected to increase further with Vista’s first service pack, which will be launched in the first quarter of 2008, according to Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platform and services division. Enterprises are still in the process of testing Vista or are waiting for the release of Vista service pack one (SP1).
Customer demand for Windows Vista this quarter continued to build with double-digit growth in multi-year agreements by businesses and with the vast majority of consumers purchasing premium editions, said Mr Johnson.
He also said that the growth in the Windows business has exceeded 20% each quarter since Vista’s launch, and it is expected to grow at an annual rate of 25%.
The company also delayed the scheduled transition to Vista and extended the sales of Windows XP for another five months because of increased demand for Windows XP. When Vista was launched, its users complained about the lack of compatibility with existing devices and software programs and some users even shifted back to Windows XP.
To make matters worse, in April 2007, Dell discarded its Windows Vista-only policy by offering Windows XP as an option for four models of its Inspiron notebooks and two models of its Dimension desktop.
Furthermore, J T Wang , chairman of Acer, said that Windows Vista sales were weaker than expected and the company had to decrease its sales forecast to 30-40% from previous figures of above 40% for 2007.
However, Microsoft has taken steps to control the piracy of Vista, resulting in greater adoption of premium versions of Vista. This has increased the sales of its ‘client division,’ which includes the Windows operating system. The client division’s revenue has increased by approximately 24% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2007 and generated $15 billion in revenues in the year ending June 2007.
Mr Johnson reported that Microsoft has made efforts in educating consumers about the advantages of high-end versions of Vistas and non-pirated solutions. Vista includes a new authentication program that delivers security updates to users.
In addition, Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft, said that he expects high sales for Vista in emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
