Ballmer gets Vista message back on track

By Stan Beer
Friday, 26 May 2006 10:47

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has gone the extra mile to make sure he has conveyed the "right" message to the media about the release date of the company's new operating system, Windows Vista. According to Ballmer, who is now in Seoul, his comments yesterday in Tokyo about the release of Vista being pushed back a few weeks were misinterpreted by the press and that Vista is on track to ship in January 2007. However, the cagey CEO has left himself an escape clause.

Ballmer simply reiterated the same open ended statement of yesterday. That is, Vista is on track for January 2007 but - and this is the kicker - the most important thing is getting the quality right. Basically he just said (without actually saying it) that if a bunch of Vista Beta 2 users run up against performance issues, major bugs, compatibility problems and the like, the Vista release will be delayed.

Basically that is what research group Gartner's main Vista followers have been saying all along, except they insist that, based on Microsoft's previous shipping history, Vista will not be released until 9 to 12 months after the release of the Beta 2. That would put the release date as somewhere between late February and late May. There is no getting around the time needed to test the product in the marketplace.

However, there seems to be a heightened sense of urgency around Microsoft at present and both Ballmer and Chairman Gates are known to be not happy about Vista being delayed until January. One can imagine that the development team is under enormous pressure to get the job done with whips being cracked over their heads.

With such pressure to bring the long awaited product to market, is it possible that Microsoft could be rushing things too much. Vista is reportedly a huge jump from Windows XP and is likely to need a lot of testing. After all, the Longhorn Beta 2 was released at the same time as Vista Beta 2 and Longhorn is not scheduled for release until the second half of 2007.

Vista is being released at a critical juncture of Microsoft's career. It needs this product to reinvigorate the company's growth, which is now stagnant. Ballmer is certainly correct in saying that the most important thing with Vista is getting the quality right. With complex software, sometimes that means choosing between getting a product out to meet a deadline or delaying it until the product is right up to scratch. Microsoft can afford to miss one more release deadline but it can't afford Vista to be a fizzer.