Windows Vista Delay
Charles Cooper, over at C|Net, gets it right again...
In Microsoft's view, this is simply a decision to delay the ship date by a few weeks. But it's much more.
Time was when Microsoft could get away with a product slip, shrug its shoulders and promise a "new and improved" version sometime soon. Microsoft's OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) were banking on a big bang rollout in the fourth quarter. This extends throughout the PC food chain--from chipmakers to storage providers to applications developers and yes, computer manufacturers.
The new launch is now scheduled for January 2007. Microsoft is downplaying the slip, saying the extra time was needed to build better security into the product. That may be so, but this is Microsoft's biggest product launch in years. Considering the amount of resources being thrown at the Vista project, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer now face unyielding embarrassment. How could things go so wrong this late in the process? For years, Microsoft fought to shed a reputation for being perennially late shipping big projects like Windows and Windows NT. Tuesday's announcement only makes those questions front and center again.
Microsoft is downplaying suggestions that Tuesday's news suggests anything fundamentally wrong with the company's internal processes. Still, you have to ask whether the company has grown so large that its ability to undertake a project this complex is inevitably going to be hampered by its own bureaucratic sloth.
Recall that last year Microsoft dropped several important features in order to not slow down the shipment plans. Microsoft even removed WinFS, a key piece of Longhorn, so that PC makers could plan around a holiday release.
As with everything it does, Microsoft is careful to cultivate its public relations. Earlier in the day, the company announced it would increase the distribution of its Xbox 360 video game consoles. But that bit of good news will get overshadowed because Vista will miss the entire '06 holiday shopping season.
Beyond the obvious blow to its reputation, Microsoft's inability to tame Windows--always a notoriously hairy coding project--puts the company on the defensive at the worst possible juncture. Time was when Microsoft could get away with a product slip, shrug its shoulders and promise a "new and improved" version sometime soon. But that was pre-Internet, pre-Linux and pre-Google; 2006 is not 1996, and Microsoft's customers have other alternatives.
In Microsoft's view, this is simply a decision to delay the ship date by a few weeks. But it's much more.
Time was when Microsoft could get away with a product slip, shrug its shoulders and promise a "new and improved" version sometime soon. Microsoft's OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) were banking on a big bang rollout in the fourth quarter. This extends throughout the PC food chain--from chipmakers to storage providers to applications developers and yes, computer manufacturers.
The new launch is now scheduled for January 2007. Microsoft is downplaying the slip, saying the extra time was needed to build better security into the product. That may be so, but this is Microsoft's biggest product launch in years. Considering the amount of resources being thrown at the Vista project, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer now face unyielding embarrassment. How could things go so wrong this late in the process? For years, Microsoft fought to shed a reputation for being perennially late shipping big projects like Windows and Windows NT. Tuesday's announcement only makes those questions front and center again.
Microsoft is downplaying suggestions that Tuesday's news suggests anything fundamentally wrong with the company's internal processes. Still, you have to ask whether the company has grown so large that its ability to undertake a project this complex is inevitably going to be hampered by its own bureaucratic sloth.
Recall that last year Microsoft dropped several important features in order to not slow down the shipment plans. Microsoft even removed WinFS, a key piece of Longhorn, so that PC makers could plan around a holiday release.
As with everything it does, Microsoft is careful to cultivate its public relations. Earlier in the day, the company announced it would increase the distribution of its Xbox 360 video game consoles. But that bit of good news will get overshadowed because Vista will miss the entire '06 holiday shopping season.
Beyond the obvious blow to its reputation, Microsoft's inability to tame Windows--always a notoriously hairy coding project--puts the company on the defensive at the worst possible juncture. Time was when Microsoft could get away with a product slip, shrug its shoulders and promise a "new and improved" version sometime soon. But that was pre-Internet, pre-Linux and pre-Google; 2006 is not 1996, and Microsoft's customers have other alternatives.
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