In the first year of its release, Windows Vista will be adopted twice as fast as any other version of Windows, with ten times as many Vista business seats deployed at launch than any previous release of the operation system, according to Microsoft's projections.
Despite this optimistic expectation, analysts still don't expect businesses to begin adopting Vista in earnest until late 2007 or even 2008, with many waiting for the first service pack version of Vista before they begin considering an upgrade.
Public Beta HelpsOne reason Microsoft is expecting Vista to be so successful is that the company has made a concerted effort to give customers the tools and training they need to adopt Vista across their businesses, said Brad Goldberg, general manager of the Windows Client Business Group at Microsoft. The company also distributed test versions widely.
For the previous Windows migration, to Windows XP, Microsoft didn't release important tools to help businesses upgrade--such as a compatibility toolkit to ensure existing applications will work--until Service Pack 2, which was released nine months after Windows XP shipped, he said. However, with Windows Vista, "we made the beta of the [compatibility] toolkit available with Windows Vista Beta 2," Goldberg said.
