Vista Pushed Back to 2007

Microsoft has announced that "Windows Vista" will miss its forcasted Holiday ship date and be pushed into 2007. The unexpected announcement has shaken the retail industry and computer manufacturers who were planning on strong end of the year sales.

""It's a much bigger deal for the computer makers than it is for anybody else," said David Smith, a vice president with Gartner Inc.

Windows Vista is Microsoft's first major update to the company's flagship operating system since Windows XP was released in late 2001, meaning partners will be left with a fifth major holiday season without a new version of the operating system to promote.

"It's not the optimal situation, to be launching the next-generation version of Windows right after the big holiday sales season," said analyst Joe Wilcox with Jupiter Research.

A spokesman for Dell Inc. declined to comment on how the delay might affect sales. In a statement released by Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard Co. said it supported Microsoft's decision to make quality a priority in scheduling the operating system's release.

Microsoft will release some versions of the new operating system for big businesses in November as planned, but the consumer version will be postponed until January, said Jim Allchin, co-president of the Microsoft division that includes Windows."