Shouldn't we thank Microsoft for Vista?

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 04:37

Opinion and Analysis

There's been a lot of hype as well as a lot of FUD leading up to the January 30 global launch of Vista. Microsoft has copped much flak from its detractors over the past year or two. However perhaps Microsoft deserves to be thanked rather than flamed for bringing to market its new operating system.

Let's face it. Not many satisfied Windows XP users with a modicum of sense are actually going to go out and buy a boxed copy of Vista and spend money to beef up their PCs just so that they can run the new operating system.

However, from what most commentators have seen, including yours truly, Vista, is definitely a more robust, secure and powerful operating system than its predecessor. And so it should be after five years of development.

Therefore when it comes time to buy our new desktop or notebook, unless we decide to buy a Mac, what we will get, courtesy of Microsoft is a new computer loaded with Vista instead of XP. Pardon me for asking the obvious, but after five years of development at a cost of hundreds of millions and a marketing budget to match, what's in this for Microsoft?

To be sure, even after OEM discounts, Vista will cost consumers a little more than XP, thus generating some incremental revenue increases for Microsoft. However, with almost total market saturation already, all Microsoft will really be doing is gradually replacing sales of its current operating system with a newer improved system.

Back in 1995, things were different. For many new computer users, Windows 95 was a technology enabler that actually generated new PC sales and extra business for Microsoft. With Vista that simply isn't the case.

Projections from analyst groups, such as Gartner, predict that Vista will be slowly assimilated into the existing PC community in line with the natural hardware upgrade cycle. It will not generate much if any new business.

There is also a possible downside for Microsoft in the short term. In its quest to reach new markets in emerging economies, such as China and India, as well as the third world, the relatively hefty and thus expensive hardware requirements of Vista may actually prove to be a hindrance to take-up.

Here in the affluent first world, however, consumers really should be happy that when they buy a new PC, the operating system should be a significant improvement on the previous one. So thanks Microsoft.

Oh, just one more thing. New PCs will of course not come preloaded with Office 2007.Will users be able to come up with a good reason to spend a considerable amount of extra money to upgrade from the version of Office they already have?