Anilrgowda

Microsoft may be missing the prime shopping season of the year with Windows Vista, but IDC's report indicates that the impact may almost be negligible. The firm believes that Microsoft will be able to ship about 90 million units within the first 12 months after launch - which will take its first step tomorrow with the introduction of Vista Business.


To put that number into perspective, Microsoft shipped about 67 million copies of Windows XP, in the year after the software's launch on October 25, 2001. If Microsoft can achieve IDC estimates, the company would see a 34% gain over first-year XP shipments. That number, of course, also is due to an increased number of potential customers worldwide. Ovum analyst David Mitchell recently said that he would expect a similar percentage of XP users to transition to Vista as 2000/Me users to XP five years ago. According to Mitchell about 12-14% of PC users migrated within one year and he expects about 15% of today's PC users to switch to Vista in the same time frame.


IDC, however, believes that there will be substantial differences in transition behavior among different market segments. While consumers, especially those who are buying a new PC, really do not have a choice but adopting Vista, businesses will take their time, the firm said. During the 2007 calendar year, Windows Vista Home products are estimated to account for 90% of new Windows client operating environments deployed by home users; Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise will account for only 35% of the new Windows client operating environments implemented by business users, IDC said. During the second year of Vista's availability, business installations will reach a market share of about 80%, according to the market research firm.