Vista's Lessons for Microsoft
Hurry it up. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer has already said it will never take this long again to deliver a new version of Windows. He's right–five years was just too long, building expectations and pressure that surely deepened the disappointments.
Offer alternatives. Microsoft worked hard this time to make sure that Vista, and only Vista, was available on consumer PCs when it launched in late January. Wouldn't it ease resentment to allow use of Windows XP for a while? Vista, like other Microsoft products such as Office, is not measured only against competitors but against the success of earlier Microsoft products. Windows Vista against Windows XP is somewhat like New Coke against Coke, says Silver, the Gartner analyst. "Coke was a pretty good product to start with."
Vista is not New Coke, says Microsoft's Brooks, because it's not going away. There may have been missteps in Vista's development and release, and Microsoft is studying what it can learn for future releases. But, overall, Microsoft is happy with the system and will base future Windows upgrades on Vista, Brooks says: "It is the future."
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