By Tim Ferguson, 28 November 2007 15:46
NEWS
Businesses feel a move to Microsoft's Windows Vista OS isn't worth the effort yet, due to compatibility issues and it offering too few benefits over XP.
Almost a year after the businesses version of Vista was released, it seems take-up remains sluggish and analysts predict this won't change significantly for a while.
Mike Silver, research VP at Gartner, told silicon.com: "From what we've seen so far, enterprises in the US and Europe have been slow to take it up."
Vista: all the coverage...
1. Poll: In a fight between Vista, OS X, Linux, XP...
2. One year on: XP still outshining Vista
3. Vista - businesses not convinced
4. Vista - when will business take the plunge?
5. Gates: Vista selling faster than XP
6. Tesco.com takes stock with Windows Vista
7. CIO Jury: IT chiefs not yet planning for Windows Vista
8. Blighty Vista "overcharging" attacked
He explained there are two reasons for this, the first being that software vendors have yet to come out with enough software which will work with the OS.
In addition, companies dont seem to see much point in using Vista over XP, the operating system it replaces.
Silver said: "Organisations really are not sold on the benefits [of Vista]."
But Silver predicts uptake will accelerate in 2008, with increased planning and testing and the arrival of the first service pack (SP1) fuelling demand.
"It's [SP1] still a bit of a bellwether or milestone for some organisations," he said.
David Bradshaw, analyst at Ovum, agreed that take-up has been slow. He said: "It's taking a bit longer than expected with business take-up."
He added: "Realistically, it's a major cost for businesses and businesses really, really need to see the benefit first. And that benefit isn't going to emerge completely for a year or two."
He explained: "There's no one killer application. You have to decide whether it's critical to your business."
He predicted the tipping point will come in two or three years when more applications work with Vista than XP. Bradshaw said: "Businesses know that they'll adopt it in the long term."
He added that many enterprise agreements with Microsoft will include an upgrade to Vista and so it's only a matter of time before businesses take the plunge.
Richard Edwards, senior analyst at Butler Group, was less positive. He said: "I'm not seeing any uptake of Vista whatsoever and there's absolutely no appetite for Vista."
He added: "I think at the moment XP is doing a good enough job. The market is not hunting in any particular areas that Vista is addressing."
And with technical support for XP running until 2014, Edwards said IT directors will have plenty of other things to worry about first.
Frank Foxall, CEO of Camwood - which, among other things, helps companies migrate operating systems - told silicon.com: "In the first year, I don't think it's [take-up] anywhere near where Microsoft wanted it."
He added: "The biggest competition is still XP. The biggest intangible [challenge] is what will and what wont work."
But he added lots of Camwood's customers are now preparing for Vista as they know they'll need to make the move at some point soon.
He said: "The biggest driver for Vista is eventuality."
He predicted around 70 per cent of Camwood's customers will want help with Vista preparation in 2008, with full take-up of the OS taking place over the next couple of years.
But despite these views, Microsoft told silicon.com it's satisfied with the global uptake of Vista. The company said it has sold 88 million licences for the OS (consumer and business versions combined) and expects to have sold 100 million by the end of the year.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Iain Hunneybell
I think one of the major issues with Vista and which all software will/is coming across, is that the existing software already does most if not all of what people want.
We have been used to new released of software bringing with them eagerly awaited new features but that is increasingly not the case.
Much software has now got to the stage of the over-complex VCR. It may have 101 functions, but actually most people simply want something that records and plays back simply and reliably. Why then go through the pain of an upgrade to get a lot of functions you probably will never use?
2. Karen Challinor
the major selling points of vista are
1 - the aero interface - after you've shown everyone and their dog that you can have translucent windows and a gadget bar for the tenth time and actually start using the machine then this ceases to be the selling point it was
2 - increased security - if the increased security does it's job you shouldn't even notice it, instead you are bombarded with popups asking if this is really you doing this, and if you manage to turn off the popups half your applications stop working because they expect the UAC to be enabled
3 - DRM - this gives the end user absolutely nothing but is a major selling point for the recording industry, so here's an idea why don't the recording industry guys pay for it ?
then add in all the device drivers that have had to be rewritten to cope with the redesign and are full of bugs or just aren't available because the device manufacturers haven't paid microsoft the license fees yet, all the major software packages that currently don't work and the case for using vista without a major IT spend above and beyond the spend for the vista licenses gets pretty thin
3. Gary Barker
"The biggest driver for Vista is eventuality."
Fabulously idiotic-- both the language and what I'm guessing is the intended meaning.
4. anonymous
Agreeing with Iain. Developers should now concentrate on performance (Vista is slower than XP), stability and security rather that heaping on more and more unused features. It is interesting that although CPU speeds have increased massively the speed at which basic tasks e.g. word processing can be performed and applications load hasn't changed much since I had my first MacSE. What we get is software bloat rather than useful features or speed and robustness.