I have just seen an article in which the conversations from CTS (16 shows on Vista and Office 2007 in 2 days) have been misrepresented. Since I was the Vista presenter, I feel the need to set the record straight,
1st off, the site where this is all being so heavily debated:
To clarify Vista and Office 2007 are coming, as per the PR announcements at the same time – there is no new delay. At CTS we were speculating when in January the launch might happen. The only timeline shifts were those already mentioned in the MARCH press release - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-21WindowsVistaDeliveryPR.mspx
There were several interesting highlights from that article which were either not accurate or misunderstood. Whether that is the joy of journalism or my mistake we will never know.
Vista will ship for Volume License customers in November. I cannot give a date for January, but this is 110% based on feedback from our OEMs, System Builders and retail partners. The product will be ready, shipped and in use in November, so the consumer / OEM / Shop date is one purely of appropriateness as desired by our partners.
Hopefully this will put to bed the silly speculation that there is another delay. Once the product is shipped in November, the product is ready. All versions of the product. System builders and OEMs will have the product way before January to enable them to test and prepare for the launch event
If you or a customer wants it in November, you will need to register for some form of Software Assurance. If you have 5 PCs that you have bought in the last 90 days (180 days at the moment as a special offer in the UK) you can register them for Software Assurance and pay 2 years of that (@ approx 30% per year) and be able to get Vista (and Office) early, cheaper than waiting until the product is in the shops and get additional benefits such as train vouchers and potentially home usage rights too.
Ttfn
David
Posted
Fri, May 19 2006 7:10 AM
by
David Overton