14 DAY TRIAL // With the combined commercial launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System, Microsoft tried to repeat the revolution and performance of the joint release of Windows 95 and Office 95. Not only this, but the Redmond Company actually invited the comparison. And it backfired; backfired in this context is an understatement.
Microsoft's initial predictions and expectations for the performance delivered by Window Vista in the wake of the launch were somewhat courageous and concomitantly ignorant of the reality. The Redmond Company threw half a billion dollars on the market in an attempt to soften Vista's drop. But the operating system did not exactly jump off the shelves and onto the users' desktops. By failing the expectations that were forecasted for it, Vista's first steps into the world were muted and delivered little example of success.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer remarked at the Partner Luncheon and Press Conference, Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 Worldwide Availability, New York, N.Y. on January 29, 2007, one day before Vista was scheduled to hit the shelves: "We think in the next three months we'll probably sell five times as many copies of Windows Vista as we ever did Windows XP in the equivalent period of time -- I'm sorry, Windows 95. We'll probably go double what we did with Windows XP. And while some of that is the increase in the size of the installed base, a lot of that is the enthusiasm that we've had a chance to see and feel during this beta period."
Needles to say, Windows Vista is not quite there yet. In the first month of commercial availability, the operating system had a slow rate of adoption and failed to pass the 1% share milestone of the OS market.
This took me back to a prediction put forward by David Mitchell Smith, VP and Gartner Fellow on the very same day Vista hit the shelves, January 30, 2007: "So, even if Vista ultimately is successful, which it eventually will be, it will have to overcome some expectations this week." The expectations of that week translated into the slow uptake of the operating system. One month later, Vista has not yet overcome those expectations.