How Much Would a Vista Slip Cost Microsoft?

During its quarterly earnings call with financial analysts on July 20, Microsoft maintained the party line that it is still planning to release Windows Vista to manufacturing before year-end 2006 and to launch it in January 2007. But what if Vista slips a quarter, asked one analyst. Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell told company watchers that a one quarter Vista slip would cost Microsoft between $200 million and $400 million. Ouch.

Posted by Mary Jo Foley on July 20, 2006 6:58 PM

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Comments (2)

Ron Laisle :

What?You call that a column?That column about microsoft looks like some of the smoke and mirrors coming out of redman these days!!!

Posted by Ron Laisle | July 21, 2006 1:01 PM

m w :

MS has too many products and rivals to simply say that a Vista slip hurts them.They'll make more money long term from selling Xbox 360's, and now Zunes. They need to control the living room, and it's obvious that new OS's won't help them. And things like Origami and Pocket PC, the market has spoken, and people would rather have a simple Ipod.So I think Vista's delays help MS. Businesses aren't going to switch to Mac OSX and Microsoft would rather sell older versions of software than potentially cut into X360's sales. It's a good tactical decision. Especially with Zune needing momentum, MS wants their core fans spending money on the one hardware manufacturer that gets MS the most money: MS.

Posted by m w | July 24, 2006 11:56 AM