Is the Vista fiasco bad enough to hurt Microsoft (MSFT)?

Posted Jun 11th 2008 2:57PM by Carol Vinzant
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), Technology

We've known for a long time that Vista has been aggravating Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) customers, both personal and corporate. More than 200,000 aggrieved customers have signed InfoWorld's Save XP petition to keep selling the old operating system past its current deadline of June 30. BusinessWeek reports today that Wall Street is increasingly concerned that Vista may even hurt Microsoft's bottom line.

It would take an issue of monumental proportions to move a behemoth like Microsoft. Could Vista be that bad? BusinessWeek's Aaron Ricadela cites a Sanford Bernstein report by Charles Di Bona estimating that Vista will clip Microsoft earnings by $395 million or 2 cents a share for FY2009. That's a lot of money, but Microsoft has earnings of over $14 billion.

The issue is that businesses are becoming wary of all the problems they've heard about (memory hogging, incompatibility with software and hardware, pestering prompts, propensity for crashes). So they're increasingly deciding to stick it out and wait for the next operating system, Vista 7, which won't be out until 2010 or 2011 (and then, like Vista, may take time to work out the kinks). Bernstein did a survey and found that only about a quarter of IT pros expect to be using Vista by 2011, down from about two-thirds a year ago.

Tags: featured, MSFT, save xp, SaveXp, vista, xp

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-11-2008 @ 3:49PM

gumbo koontz said...

Microsoft just decided to do away with your little silly drivers in your CD roms that comes with your computer periphals like mice, graphics cards, monitors, scanners, printers, etc and give their factory standard drivers to you online instead . Microsoft is fed up with hackers and pesky security holes that keep on spawning as you install drivers out of CD Roms. Soon enough, you will be seeing no more CD roms in next new perhiphal you buy at stores. Microsoft will know what you have and install drivers online by themselves. This is the real issue that people are upset with Microsoft. If you are resistant and force to install drivers from CDroms that Microsoft deems to be non compatible with Microsoft Windows, you will be doomed!

6-11-2008 @ 3:55PM

gumbo koontz said...

Before too long, Windows will be as good as Mac OS due to hermetically sealed drivers and whatnots that Mac OS had always employed all along. it was just that Microsoft had thought that innovation would be encouraged if drivers and whatnots designed by comptetiiors outside Microsoft would promote more sales for Windows. Microsoft finally owned up to the fact that none of you is to be trusted and that they has to make Windows battleship grade! Microsoft is already there , but it was just you who are still balking at the idea of being told that your old drivers are non compatible with windows....