14 DAY TRIAL // At the end of $6 billion worth of development, today January 30, 2007, Windows Vista is right on track to become internationally available. Microsoft, citing a study commissioned to IDC, estimates that Windows Vista will be deployed on in excess of 105 million computers worldwide just in 2007.
One aspect that Microsoft has underlined with the global commercial launch of its flagship products is that Vista was designed to broaden access to technology. Jean-Philippe Courtois, president, Microsoft International, revealed that Microsoft plans to offer Windows Vista in no less than 100 languages.
"A key component of those 100 languages is our Local Language Program (LLP), in which Microsoft partners with governments and local language specialists to develop interfaces in many languages," Courtois said. "Through the LLP, we help enable minority language groups to participate more fully in the civic life of their communities and to benefit from the economic growth associated with the expanding global IT economy. For Windows Vista, we have developed 19 Language Interface Packs (LIPs), which will be available in Europe, reaching nearly 94 million people across the region in languages from Albanian to Welsh. Worldwide these programs reach nearly 2 billion people."
Just over the pond, Windows Vista will be connected to 1.7 million jobs in 28 key European markets. Microsoft has forecasted that this year alone, the environment of products and services related to Vista will reach $ 70 billion. IDC has already indicated that Windows Vista will be deployed on over 30 million computers across Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK by the end of 2007.