Microsoft Starts the 'Wow'

At a partner event today for the news media, Microsoft kicked off Vista festivities in grandeur.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opened the luncheon launch, with quite a bit more gusto than the business Vista event two months ago.

Joining Ballmer on stage: Todd Bradley, executive vice president for HP's Personal Systems Group; Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president; Hisatsugu Nonaka, Toshiba CEO; Kevin Rollins, Dell CEO; and Hector Ruiz, AMD CEO.

Ballmer started by praising his partners' input on Office 2007 and Windows Vista.

"Our two products were built really with the help of our partners and our customers," he said.

Ballmer expects five times the sales of Vista over the first three months compared to Windows 95, and twice the sales of Windows XP.

On Saturday, Dell started taking Windows Vista preorders. Rollins indicated strong early demand with Dell's Web site traffic up 20 percent over the weekend.

Dell has "sold tens of thousand of copies," Rollins said. But he didn't say whether those sales were strictly on computers or if computer sales had increased. Spike in Web traffic doesn't necessarily translate into a sales increase. I would have asked Rollins during the Q&A, but the moderator didn't pick me.

Most likely, most preorders were for new Vista PCs. "By an order of magnitude" most Vista copies will be sold on new PCs "in the corporate world" and among consumers, Ballmer said. "Numerically, new hardware will be the lion's share of the volume."

Office 2007 and Windows Vista officially go on sale at 12:01 am on January 30. In Asia and South Pacific, tomorrow has come.

"We delivered the first Windows Vista product in the world, in New Zealand, at midnight," Bradley said. "It's the first of many."

As those new PCs come to market, driver issues remain to be resolved, even though Ballmer touted that Vista supports "1.5 million devices supported at launch."

Steve Kleynhans, vice president of Client Platforms for Gartner, said that particularly for high-end components "drivers aren't ready yet."

"I think people are curious, and that means something," said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies. "Beyond that, most people will wait until they need a new PC, and Vista will be on it."

Another question: Where are the cool Vista applications? Ballmer touted a new North Face kiosk and New York Times reader that leverage Windows Vista features. But Microsoft has been pitching these applications for more than a year. Where is the new stuff? Yahoo plans a Vista instant messenger, but it's not even coming in beta until next month.

The lack of newness clearly defined the event, or the promise of immediate PC sales increases. Considering the Super Bowl's imminence, more consumers may be clamoring for big screen TVs than new PCs.

For those people interested in TVs and PCs, however, Vista has lots to offer, Ballmer said. He described Vista as the "next generation of entertainment" into the home.

Convergence, whether the Web or TV with the PC, creates new security concerns that Vista technologies like BitLocker address, Bradley said. "The world's become connected. It's beyond being mobile. Security is such a huge, huge price of that connectivity."

Ballmer put down rumors that Windows Vista would be the last operating system of the product family. While the Web platform woos developers, Ballmer emphasized that "developers need a richer platform," referring to Windows.

Vista isn't even officially available in the United States and already people are asking about the first update. Corporate users typically wait until the first service pack before making the move.

When asked if Microsoft had set a date for the first Windows Vista service pack, Ballmer bellowed, "No! The goal is not to need one."

Later today, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates will officiate another Vista launch in Times Square, just minutes before taping his appearance on tonight's "Daily Show." Seattle PI reporter Scott Bishop bumped into host Jon Stewart today. Lucky sod, and I told him so.

Perhaps AMD CEO best Hector Ruiz summarized the view of Vista.

"Vista is a Spanish word," he said. "You picked a fantastic name."