Vista Slips: Broad Availability Now On For Early 2007

Only business customers with volume licensing deals can get the release, as promised, before the holidays. Those customers will get their bits in November, said Jim Allchin, co-president of Platform Products & Services, and the Microsoft executive tasked with guiding this release to fruition.

The next Windows has already been through multiple delays, and was already split off from the Longhorn Windows server release.

For the past three years, Microsoft has been on something of a treadmill, talking up the fancy new user interface and other features for the next Windows, then pulling many of them forward to work with the current releases of Windows.

Allchin said the company opted for the delay partly at partner request. Partners need a firm date and assurance of best product quality.

Beta 2 is still on tap for next quarter. This move echoes what Microsoft did with Office 2003 three years ago. It was made avaible first to volume buyers, then a few months later to other customers.

This delay is particularly bad news for hardware makers and others who wanted to have machines ready for the holiday buying season. Vista is seen as a catalyst for upgrades. It was unclear whether customers buying PCs in December would get the Vista bits later as part of their deal.

"That is a big blow to us," said Todd Swank, director of marketing at Nor-Tech, a Burnsville, Minn., system builder.

Swank said he just saw a demonstration of Vista at Intel's annual partner conference last week and thought it "looked great." "I think that will put a damper on holiday sales," he said, noting that Nor-Tech VAR customers sell to both businesses and consumers.

Ron Herardian, CEO of Global System Services, a Mountain View, Calif. solution provider agreed. "VARs and integrators have been investing in Vista, running the betas and talking to customers about it. These investments will fall flat for as long as Vista is delayed," Herardian noted.

Kristen Kenedy contributed to this story which was updated Tuesday night with partner comment.