Smooth Sailing For Vista Launch, But Where's Allchin?

The demos went off without a hitch. Vista looked good as did Office 2007's '"ribbon." With business availability of Vista and new Office now here, it's all over but the shouting--And the dueling market research claims about pent-up demand and uptake.

Biggest mystery: The whereabouts of Vista chief Jim Allchin was soon cleared up. He was "on vacation" a Microsoft exec said.

Odd, but moving on

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was typically ebullient, expecting Vista take-up to be faster, stronger than that for Windows XP.

"That doesn't mean 60 percent of desktops will switch in next year [it'll] just stronger than before," Ballmer noted.

"Each of the products [Vista and Office] brings its own distinct benefits. My suspicion is that most customers will evaluate separately but will probably deploy at the same time. Why? Because they'll find it's the lowest-cost way of getting from here to there," Ballmer told a tight room with some 100 reporters at NASDAQ headquarters in New York's Time Square.

Up front he addressed the biggest looming-if-unasked question: "It's great to be here. I probably should say it's great to finally be here but that's all I'll say on the past," he noted.

In fact today's launch is the first of a rolling series of product launches and events that will happen throughout the next year. The consumer worldwide launch of both products is on for January 30, and a slew of related products will debut throughout next year. These will include the Office Communications Server—which integrates IM, VoIP and conferencing and Microsoft's Speech Server—will be out next year.

"There are about 30 plus new products for business customers as result of this wave of innovation, "Ballmer said.

The press release distributed at the event headlined it the "most significant product launch in Microsoft's history." Down Dino...

At any rate, a demo of Microsoft's in-house interactive voice response system, which uses Outlook Voice Access uses Bill Gates' voice to walk callers through their paces, got the biggest launch. A spokesman confirmed that this system is in production at Microsoft now.

Update: Jim Allchin, in an interview posted to PC Mag just days before the Nov. 30 launch events, said he would participate in the London and Vienna gigs. That, apparently, did not happen.