WINDOWS VISTA UPDATE 05:
The negative perception of Windows Vista may be
>> catching up to Microsoft in the bank. On 11 JUN a financial analyst
firm
>> lowered its revenue estimate for Microsoft's 2008 and 2009 fiscal
years,
>> citing a negative perception about the operating system that is
affecting
>> its adoption by businesses. The research report by Sanford C. Bernstein
>> analysts also hinted at the release date for the next version of
Windows
>> code-named Windows 7. In the report, analysts said they expect Windows
7
>> to be released in the second quarter of 2010. In the report,
analysts
>> Charles J. Di Bona, Maureen Murphy and Mariel A. Hardi lowered their
>> revenue estimates for Microsoft by $49 million for fiscal 2008 and by
>> $395
>> million for fiscal 2009. While the 2008 revision didn't affect the
firm's
>> earnings estimate of $1.91 per share for that year, it lowered its 2009
>> estimate to $2.17 from $2.20, according to the report. "Support
for Vista
>> has been battered across all enterprise sizes and corporate
>> constituencies," the report stated. "As a consequence, the
Vista cycle
>> looks likely to be materially less robust than indicated in our prior
>> survey." The key factor has been "overwhelmingly bad
publicity" for
>> Vista,
>> particularly about the option for enterprise licensees to downgrade to
XP
>> from Vista, and the potential for companies to skip Vista in favor of
>> Windows 7. The downgrade option has been especially troublesome for
>> Microsoft, which in some cases has had to extend the time it will sell
XP
>> due to customer demand. The negative publicity has left businesses with
a
>> perception that there is no good reason for them to upgrade, according
to
>> the Bernstein report. "Almost no feature of the new OS is now seen
as a
>> meaningful positive driver for adoption," the analysts said.
Independent
>> analyst Brian Madden concurred. "From a company standpoint, there
is not
>> a
>> single damn reason people should use Vista," he said. "Will
you sell
>> another widget because of Vista? No. And besides, Vista has so many
>> hardware requirements that you increase your costs." The Bernstein
report
>> also cites costs associated with Vista, which would require some
>> companies
>> to upgrade their desktop hardware because of the increased system
>> requirements, a further impediment to adoption. Moreover, some features
>> of
>> Vista that Microsoft promoted as key reasons to upgrade, such as
>> security,
>> have been undermined by negative publicity around tools like User
Account
>> Control, a new security feature many customers have griped about,
>> according to the report. [Source: IDG News Service Elizabeth Montalbano
>> article 11 Jun 08 ++]