Ballmer Expects Businesses To Jump On Vista

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday he's confident the software giant will see a strong business uptake of Windows Vista out of the gate.

Speaking at Nasdaq headquarters in New York for the global launch of the first versions of the Vista operating system, Ballmer said there will be a "stronger and faster" business upgrade cycle for Vista than for Windows XP, which launched five years ago.

"The truth is, we have a lot of customers in the business world anxious to deploy. We will have a stronger business upgrade cycle for Vista than we had for XP," Ballmer said. "That doesn't mean 60 percent of business desktops will switch in the next year. It will just be a stronger, faster upgrade cycle than before. Many businesses will deploy out of the shoot."

To that end, he said Microsoft will invest "hundreds of millions" of dollars in marketing funds to promote Vista and the Office 2007 productivity suite, which also launched Thursday, to businesses and consumers.

With Thursday's launch, Microsoft shipped business versions of Vista to volume-license customers only. As part of the release, the Redmond, Wash., company is making available Vista Business and Vista Ultimate to volume-license customers and Vista Enterprise to volume-license customers with Software Assurance.

The mainstream business and consumer editions of Vista won't be released until Jan. 30. Microsoft said the big channel launch for OEMs and system builders won't come until late January, but partners and LARs that serve volume-license customers can begin pursuing business opportunities at once.

At the launch event, Ballmer highlighted the "breadth and depth" of innovative, new features in Vista and Office 2007 that simplify communication and collaboration; help business users search, find and analyze business data; enable better management and security; and empower business decision-makers.

Microsoft will bring to market more than 30 business applications -- both client and server - that are enabled by the core features in Vista and Office 2007, including SharePoint 2007 and Forefront 2007.

Still, some industry analysts and solution providers questioned Ballmer's sunny optimism about business adoption of Microsoft's next-generation products in 2007.