Vista debut gets delayed

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a delay of Windows Vista that will mean PCs with the new operating system won’t go on sale until January.

The software maker said it will still wrap up development of the operating system this year and make it available to volume licensing customers in November. However, Microsoft said that a delay of a few weeks in Vista’s schedule meant that some PC makers would be able to launch this year and others would not. As a result, Windows chief Jim Allchin said the company is delaying the broad launch of the product until January.

“We needed just a few more weeks, and that put us in a bubble…where some partners would be impacted more than others,” Allchin said in a conference call with reporters and analysts.

Allchin said that although PC makers were not universal in wanting the delay, there were concerns from some companies that they could not ensure a holiday quarter launch if Microsoft pushed back its development schedule even slightly.

Analysts have been warning that Microsoft’s schedule left little room for error if it was to make a fourth-quarter launch.

Full article: ZDNet News