Re: M$ kills Christmas 2006

indigo wrote:
> Microsoft's Windows Delay Threatens to Erode Demand (Update2)
> 
> March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.'s delay in the next version of
> Windows software sent shares of computer makers lower on concern a January
> release will wipe out demand during the holiday shopping season.
> 
> PC makers were relying on a November release of Windows Vista to bolster
> holiday sales that account for about 30 percent of purchases. Redmond,
> Washington-based Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, was already
> two years late on the project and hasn't released a new Windows since 2001.
> 
> ``Few things could have done more damage to the 2006 PC market than the slip
> of Windows Vista,'' Rob Enderle, president of San Jose, California-based
> researcher Enderle Group, said in an interview. ``This will have an adverse
> impact on a broad cross-section of components and platform PC suppliers.''
> 
> Shares of Microsoft, PC makers and chip manufacturers fell. The PC industry
> will lose more than $4 billion in sales this year from the delay, Gartner
> Inc. analyst Charles Smulders said. Microsoft gets about 31 percent of its
> revenue from Windows, and the delay may cause it to lose almost $500 million
> in the holiday quarter, said Charles Di Bona, an analyst at Sanford C.
> Bernstein. The company is depending on Vista to revive sales growth.
> 
> Microsoft will this week name executive Steven Sinofsky to head the Windows
> group, taking over duties from James Allchin when he retires as planned
> later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar
> with the situation.
> 
> 

And nobody seems to mention the fact that rushing it to try and be ready 
for Xmas will result in even more bugs / security holes than XP 
currently has?