Microsoft Corp is expected to launch the second beta version of its delayed NT 5.0 operating system today in Seattle. But even the second beta version still has some distance to go before becoming the definitive NT 5.0 operating system. The final beta version of the delayed NT 5.0 was meant to appear in June this year, but now it will come out in a pared down form, with the third version of the Beta NT 5.0 not expected to be delivered until the second quarter of 1999, according to the IT consultancy, the Gartner Group. This pushes back the implementation of the full server version of NT 5.0 into 2000, which potentially delays large-scale corporate implementations until mid-2001 – and raises further questions about Microsoft’s ability to deliver the current 30% and above growth rates of its revenues and earnings over coming years. The delay of NT 5.0 also leaves its consumer operating system schedule in doubt, as the replacement for Windows 98 – touted by Microsoft in 1997 as a merged NT/Windows 98 kernel – and due out after NT 5.0, will have to be delayed hand in hand with NT 5.0.
