Windows Vista Phenomenal Growth - Except For One Lady

Phenomenal growth is what Microsoft is calling its Windows Vista product with businesses and consumers alike pressing the new operating system to their bosoms. This holiday season we will see will see Vista hitting its stride when more and more computers will sell with Vista preinstalled. Vista is unstoppable!

Hmmmm………I would have to agree. With over 95% of new computers coming with Vista it is impossible for Vista not to start to take off. Plus Microsoft will experience higher profits. I would certainly hope so since both Vista and Office 2007 cost a lot more than their predecessors did. But for every ray of sunshine, there is also a tiny bit of disappointment. Take the lady who at a conference tells Ballmer:

“I’m one of those early adopters of Vista,” said Yvonne Genovese, an analyst who was interviewing Ballmer along with fellow analyst David Smith on stage at a conference forum. “My daughter comes in one day and says, ‘Hey Mom, my friend has Vista, and it has these neat little things called gadgets — I need those.’”

Said Ballmer: “I love your daughter.”

“You’re not going to like her mom in about two minutes,” said Genovese, while the crowd laughed.

She went on to explain that she installed Vista for her daughter — and two days later went right back to using the XP operating system. “It’s safe, it works, all the hardware is fine, and everything is great,” she said of XP.

Genovese also argued that her experience with Vista is broadly shared: “What we’re seeing and what we’re hearing from users is a very similar thing. It’s difficult to implement. What should we be seeing that we’re not seeing?”

“Let’s start with the end user. Your daughter saw a lot of value,” said Ballmer.

“She’s 13,” Genovese shot back.

Ballmer was good-natured about the critique as he defended the operating system. “Users appreciate the value that we put into Vista,” he said. But, as with earlier operating system releases, “there is always a tension between the value that end users see — and frankly, that software developers see — and the value that we can deliver to IT.”

Genovese was not going to let up even after Ballmer stated all of the ins and outs of Vista, and she finally stated in frustration:

“Good, I’ll let you come in and install it for me,”

So while Vista is diffently here to stay, not everyone is happy in Vista land. Just ask Steve Ballmer.

Comments welcome.

Full story is here.

[tags]windows, vista, growth, sales, computers, holiday, conference, [/tags]