Update: Microsoft Delays Consumer Release of Vista to January 2007

IDG News Service - The broad availability of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista client operating system has been pushed back to next year, Jim Allchin, co-president of the company's platform and services division, announced today.

Microsoft, however, plans to release Vista to business customers through its volume licensing program in November 2006, he said in a conference call.

In an interview in January, Allchin had said he would delay releasing Vista if the operating system did not reach a standard of quality he was comfortable with.

"Product quality and a great out-of-box experience have been two of our key drivers for Windows Vista, and we are on track to deliver on both,” Allchin said in a statement. “But the industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during [the holiday season]. We must optimize for the industry, so we’ve decided to separate business and consumer availability.”

Microsoft still plans to release to manufacturing all of Vista's six core editions at the same time in November, Allchin said. But PCs with the consumer versions preinstalled will not be for sale until January.

The consumer editions of Vista, which Allchin said have not changed, are Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate. The business editions are Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise, and they will be available through volume licensing in November.

Allchin said during today's teleconference that Vista development has slipped by "a few weeks" because of quality issues, primarily involving security. "If I had to pick out one aspect here, we're trying to crank up the security level higher than ever," he said, adding that Microsoft is "continuing to try to hone" some of Vista's security features.

Microsoft had originally targeted late November -- the start of the holiday shopping season -- for the broad shipment of Vista-based PCs. Some PC makers and retailers told Microsoft officials that they still could gear up to start selling machines with the new operating system during the holidays, Allchin said. But, he added, others told the software vendor that the development delay would prevent them from doing so.

"We needed just a few more weeks [on development], and that put us in what I would call a bubble where some partners would be affected more than others," Allchin said. "The fact is, we want everybody in the industry to be ready for this."

Microsoft said it isn't concerned about rival Apple Computer Inc. capitalizing on Vista's delay because the company thinks customers will still buy Vista simply because of the rich features it will provide.