Microsoft Ramping Up the Vista Propaganda Engine

Published: September 20, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Earlier this year, Microsoft proclaimed that the launch of Windows Vista will be the biggest launch event since Windows 95. Those were tall words for a company skilled in the art of hype, but if recent moves --including the pronouncement from Windows guru Jim Allchin that Vista apps will be "mind-bogglingly cool" and a new whitepaper from IDC that Vista will drive $40 billion in economic activity in Europe--are any indication, the Vista marketing train has left the station.

Platform Products & Services Division co-president Allchin, who directed Windows development for a decade and will leave following the launch of Vista, told developers to start thinking seriously about Vista, as the product, "barring any unforeseen quality issues," will launch this year. "We are very close to being done," he says.

In an open letter to developers, Allchin predicted that 200 million people will be using Windows Vista within the first 24 months of launch. "We're rapidly approaching launch, and then millions of people will be looking for applications. People will flock to software that is new, compelling, and 'cool.' You have GOT to be ready for this opportunity," he says in the letter, which can be read at msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/letter/default.aspx.

According to Allchin, more than 1,000 companies are participating in Microsoft's early adopter programs, including some by small companies that are relatively unknown (at least for now). "[S]ome of the initial work I've seen has simply blown me away," he says. "Some of these apps are mind-bogglingly cool."

While he was obviously playing on programmers' need for social acceptance and to be "hip" to the latest "thang," Allchin--ever the engineer--also issued a warning about potential "gotchas" in the new Vista model that could trip up unwitting programmers. These include changes to the interface APIs, changes to the networking stack, and the all-new User Account Control feature, which seeks to end malware's free reign on Windows by cutting down on the need for applications to run with administrator-level access to the file system.

"You should work hard to run as standard user," Allchin advised. To help developers write applications that are compatible with these changes, Allchin urged them to read the Application Compatibility Cookbook, as well as to visit Microsoft's Windows Vista portal Web site.

IDC Study

While General Allchin rallied the Windows developer corps, Microsoft's strategic planners successfully petitioned its hired gun, IDC, for an assessment of Vista's battlefield impact across the world, with a special focus on Europe. The fact that Microsoft focused on Europe in this report is significant because it's currently at war with the European Commission, which is concerned Microsoft could begin abusing its monopoly anew with Vista's new security features and document formats.

Within its first year of shipment, IDC says Vista will be installed on more than 100 million computers worldwide, and on more than 30 million PCs in the six-country region it studied: Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The IDC described the adoption of Vista in Europe as "rapid and widespread."

But Vista's impact will extend beyond being just another operating system, according to the IDC. For every euro spent on Vista, 14 euros will be spent on other products and services revolving around Vista, for a total of €32 billion ($40 billion) of Vista-related spending in 2007, the IDC found. The impact of the "Vista Effect" will be greatest in the six-country region, but will also impact other EU partner nations, including Norway, Croatia, and Switzerland.

Vista will also help the state of employment in the region, the analyst group found. In terms of workers, at least a million people will be working with Vista by the end of 2007, and 100,000 new jobs will have been created as the direct result of the launch of Vista. All in all, the Vista launch "will not only affect Microsoft but will also have a pronounced positive impact on local economies throughout Europe," the IDC concludes.