Microsoft Delays Release of Windows Vista

Published: March 22, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Quality concerns with Windows Vista and logistical concerns in bringing the new OS to market led Microsoft to announce Tuesday that the release of Windows Vista will be delayed. The company plans to release Windows Vista to the corporate market in November, and to the consumer market in January. The new OS had previously been expected in October, although the company only would commit publicly to a second-half delivery, which the company now will not make.

Jim Allchin, co-president of the platforms services division at Microsoft, held a news conference yesterday afternoon to discuss the postponement of the delivery of Windows Vista. "This is an awesome product and we're on track to deliver it this year, but quality is the top-line message," he said.

"We're at the home stretch here. With our engineering discipline that we've put in place, we have better predictability of what's happening. We can see out, given how long it's going to take us to finish testing," he said. "It's just going to take us a few extra weeks."

The decision was driven by concerns from Microsoft's business partners, including OEMs and retailers. "Given that these customers have wanted us to be very precise, we've decided to come out with a very high assurance date they can count on," Allchin said. "Because of the industry logistics, we're going to make it available in two stages, one for business, one for consumers, one in November [for volume licensing customers] and one in January [for consumers]."

What was left unsaid in yesterday's press conference is if this delay will have any effect on the next version of Windows Server, which still goes by its code-name "Longhorn." The company now shares much of the development work between its server and desktop operating systems, which gives Microsoft more bang for its development buck, but also exposes it to the domino effect when products get delayed.

This is what happened when the delivery of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) was delayed 2004, as the company stopped all other OS development to concentrate on the new security features in SP2. While SP2 did deliver better security, the massive development effort set back by months the releases of the X64 versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 SP1, which finally shipped April.

Last week, Bill Laing, the new general manager of the Windows Server Division, said Longhorn was still on schedule, despite the new leadership in that organization.