“The launch of the consumer version of Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system, could be pushed back past the stated January launch date, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said Wednesday,” Martyn Williams and Al Sacco report for IDG News Service.
“The operating system was due to be launched this year, but in March the company said it wouldn’t get broad release until January 2007,” Williams and Sacco report.
“Ballmer said Wednesday that the planned January launch may slip further based on feedback from a beta release program and the product road maps of hardware vendors. ‘We think we are on track for shipping early in the year. We’ve talked about the month, but we get a chance to critically assess all of the feedback we’ll get from this beta release then confirm or move [the launch date] a few weeks,’ he said at a news conference in Tokyo,” Williams and Sacco report.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “qka” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: With apologies to Stephen Sondheim:
Isn’t it rich?
Aren’t they a pair?
One here at last on the ground,
Him in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.
Isn’t it bliss?
Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can’t move.
Where are the towels?
Send in the clowns.
Just when they’d stopped
Opening windows,
Finally knowing
The one that they wanted wasn’t yours,
Launching again
With their usual flair,
Thought there’d be lines,
But no one is there.
Don’t you love farce?
Their fault we cheer.
They thought that you’d want what they want-
Sorry, my dears.
But where are the towels?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don’t bother, they’re here.
What a surprise.
Who could forsee
You’d come to feel about them
What they’d always felt about you?
Why even now can’t they see
That you’ve drifted away?
What a surprise.
What a cliché.
Isn’t it rich?
Isn’t it queer,
Losing their timing this late
In their career?
But where are the towels?
There are certainly clowns,
But we don’t see the Vista
Well, maybe next year.
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“Ballmer said …’We think we are on track for shipping early in the year.'”
We _think_ we are on track? For shipping _early_ in the year?
So Ballmer might make Vista ship in the first quarter? or is early to him just the first half of 2007?
BTW, the new Office Vista pics do look nice…too bad they also look overly complex and difficult compared to Pages.
All of you slags making fun of me:
DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!
I AM THE CEO OF THE BIGGEST, RICHEST COMPANY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD!
That means I own you and your ass. I could eat you and GET AWAY WITH IT.
That means I take a dump in your dinner plate and YOU ASK FOR SECONDS!
That means when I pee on you, YOU CALL IT LEMONADE!
That means you will buy what I want you to buy AND YOU’LL THANK ME FOR IT!
AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
Funny. If you google Uncle Fester, Ballmer’s picture shows up.
I wonder how much of the Vista delay is based on (incompetence) legitimate delays by MS and how much is actually caused by the fact that Vista is so bloated that PC makers are going to have a time of selling a $300.00 PC box that can run Vista in any of its many favors.
The delay(s) just gives the PC makers time to beat thier suppliers down so they can stick powerful enough yet affordable hardware in thier systems. This may be the end of the $300-400.00 PC box.
Today MS is saying Vista will be delayed a few weeks. Of course every month they’ll repeat the same and when all those mini delays are added up, we should see Vista …sometime in 2007.
Stevey you’re doing a heck of job.
The clever bastards, I knew they would do this. Just waiting for Apple to release the leopard and then they will quickly copy key features and rush blista to the adoring whordes.
Bloody hell, does the comedy never stop!
These guys cannot be serious businessmen with a crappy attitude like that. They should all be put up against a wall and shot with a ball of their own shit!
Leo
iVeritas: I thought you were BS-ing us — but I did the Google search and it’s true!
That’s great!
Quote “the other Mark”:
“And between now and its “launch” the VISTA project will be cancelled in its entirety…”
Back when it was called, “Longhorn” it was basically cancelled only to be relaunched as VISTA.
Now about the name…according to Webster, Vista is a distant view. I guess 7 years and counting is a pretty distant view. In addition, a distant view implies never arriving. Maybe they should just change the name to rainbow. It looks good from a distant unfortunately you can never get to it.”
Rainbow would be a good name – look who appeared on the UK TV show of the same name:
http://www.popartuk.com/general/bungle-george-zippy-pp0127-poster.asp
97% of the market and run by a buffoon like Ballmer. Just imagine how Microsoft would grind Apple away if it had somebody smart at the helm.
Is Balmer part of the deal with govt. regarding its monopoly – as long a Balmer is at the stop flubbing things up for Microsoft the govt. won´t pursue Microsoft?
I don’t understand why the Mac market share isn’t already 17-23%. When I first saw OS X back in 2002, it impressed me so much I expected Mac market share would double every year. OS X is in a class above XP and will still be more advanced and mature than Vista, if that ever ships. I really lack the ability to understand why people don’t switch to Macs in mass. Is $1000 for a great computer and some new software so had to part with?
Well the biggest problem is that people are introduced to computers because they have to use it to get a job.
Now in the creative fields, Mac’s usually grossly outnumber PC’s because of certain standardized hardware features, graphic qualities etc.
Howver in the rank and file corporate world where just cheap “dumb terminals” are needed, Windows PC’s rule because Micosoft makes the software they use most. Excel, Word etc etc. Office programs. Also PC’s have standard mono inputs for microphones and headsets for telemarketing and other purposes.
Mac’s stanard audio input is stereo for creative musicians and the like.
If Microsloth can delay just a couple more years they can call Vista “THE OS OF THE DECADE” which will sound better than “miserable failure”. That would be in keeping with their idea of damage control.
look on the bright side Microsoft:
You’re still on track…the track is just a lot longer and has more twists and turns than your map shows.
Okay my $0.02 even though the sentiment has been repeated:
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha !!!!!!!
“The clever bastards, I knew they would do this. Just waiting for Apple to release the leopard and then they will quickly copy key features and rush blista to the adoring whordes.”
Hahaha – you expect them to be able to ‘rush’ anything to do with their OS? It’s taken 5 years just to get this far and it looks pathetic:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/video_of_microsofts_windows_vista_beta_2_release_in_action/
That’s a review from CNET, who is incredibly pro-MS. They aren’t going to be able to copy any of the feature from Leopard. A Beta technically means that the feature set is complete, so MS will probably keep what it has in there right now. Maybe add one small thing or remove something that isn’t working right, but there won’t be any new features until their next OS….
Look at this quote from:
http://news.com.com/Ballmer+Symantec+suit+wont+delay+Vista/2100-1016_3-6074778.html
Ballmer said the delay was due to the company’s overambitious plans for the software.
“We were trying to link too much innovation together in Vista,”
“It was beyond the state of the art of software development.”
But in response to another question about Vista’s delay, Ballmer said: “Ultimately, I am the CEO. I am accountable.”
What a hoot!
My lawyers will call your lawyers.
Don’t bother, they’re here
Apple will not seize this opportunity. It will just plug along and maybe get to 5 or 6 percent market share. Then Steve Jobs will retire and Apple will slowly die.
Ballmer said “We were trying to link too much innovation together in Vista,”
“It was beyond the state of the art of software development.”
hahahaha ahh god hes a big, fat, disgusting, sweating oaf of a man with the mind of an ant.
Remember my (prescient) prediction of a few days ago:
17% to 23% market share within one year (not by the end of this year).
Sounds impossible? — watch it happen!
I’m as big an Apple booster as there is, but this just isn’t realistic. Apple’s gains have to come mainly from the consumer PC base, which is a smaller part of the overall installed PC base than is the corporate/business PC base. For them to reach 23%, or even 17%, they’d have to get an enormous part of the home PC base to switch immediately, which will happen but not in the numbers needed to make your percentage a reality.
10% maybe. 23%? No way. I wish it were so.
And anyway, I’m not sure that Apple wants a huge part of the market. Non-tech-savvy users are incredibly expensive to support and retain. Unless, like Microsoft, you just ignore them, which I’m sure Apple will not do.
I’m sure Apple would rather have the most savvy 10% of the market than having 25% of the market that included a 15% that were expensive and troublesome. Maybe that’s harsh, but I’m betting it’s an economic reality for Apple.
Hmm, Microsoft is starting to sound like NASA……….
Just imagine if they were really releasing “Longhorn” with all it’s features in tact!
I mean, they can’t even release Winblows SP3 on time.
Microsoft sucks.
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Oh wow, another delay… maybe they shouldn’t have given those employees and vendors a 7 day unpaid vacation after all!
Eric,
If NASA had the money that Microsoft has and successive administrations had a real commitment to space exploration then the U.S. would have a manned facility on Mars.
When I was a kid (a couple of years after Armstrong landed on the Moon) there were predictions America would land on Mars by the early 1980s. Then their budget was cut over and over again by both Democrat and Republican administrations, and the rest is history. It might be more accurate if you compared Microsoft to the Star Wars program. OK let’s get back to slagging Microsoft.
Advice for any PC owner waiting for vista,
DON’T!!!!!!!!!!!!
Make the switch and do yourself a favour…
Ballmer said the delay was due to the company’s overambitious plans for the software. “We were trying to link too much innovation together in Vista, … It was beyond the state of the art of software development.”
HAHAHAHAHA!! Right! The reason why Vista is having problems is because it’s too amazingly awesome! The current state of technology can’t handle Vista’s incredible innovativeness! It must wait for the world to catch up!
I get it now! Thanks for the clarification Ballmer, you incompetant whale!
“The launch of the consumer version of Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system, could be pushed back past the stated January launch date…”
This is news?
MDN word: given. As in; It’s a given that Vista will be delayed…again.