I know I’m flooding you guys with Vista news lately, but I have to admit its just because I’m keeping a very close eye on the new operating system and I’m particularly curious how the new OS is hitting the market. I’m not particularly upset by the news that Vista is selling a little slower than people anticipated, although apparently Microsoft shareholders are-MS stock tanked just a touch on Friday-but it’s more proof that the early adopter market is all but exhausted. Given the issues and the press that the Vista rollout has gotten, I’m not horribly surprised that businesses aren’t rushing to upgrade their desktop infrastructure to Windows Vista, and while new computer buyers will get Vista one way or the other, I don’t see those large licensing purchases turning up for a while yet.
Given that Microsoft has also announced its intention to release operating system and office upgrades more frequently than in the past (eg, no 5 year wait between versions of Windows to be broken only by a massive service pack) I think that Microsoft is looking to strike a happier balance between its past trend and the near-frenetic Apple style of OS updates. (eg, yearly) Even so, when Vista gets the official blessing beyond some excellent features and lots of graphical and productivity gimmicks that many people may not care so much about, and when Vista is a bit more up to snuff compatibility-wise (which is no fault of Microsoft’s, mind you – hardware manufacturers and software developers have a significant hand in this.) I think the purchases will start to roll in.
In the meantime, I think everyone has some work to do. For example, Microsoft has some issues to address, considering some of their early adopters, gamers-for example-are having significant issues with Vista (link via Computerworld) that would stave people who would normally rush out to have the latest and greatest. Additionally, the rest of the hardware manufacturers and software developers have work to do to get their applications working with and taking advantage of Vista’s capabilities.