But hardware requirements may be bigger obstacle for companies
By TODD BISHOP
P-I REPORTER
Microsoft Corp., trying to stoke corporate demand for Windows Vista, says it plans to release the first service pack for the PC operating system in the first three months of next year.
The big bundle of fixes and updates, known as Service Pack 1, has traditionally been a catalyst in the company’s efforts to get businesses to upgrade to a new Windows version. Many wait until then to make sure the kinks have been worked out.
However, some industry analysts say the effect may not be quite the same this time around. Steep hardware requirements for Windows Vista may be as much an obstacle as corporate concerns about the operating system’s reliability and stability, said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Kirkland-based research firm Directions on Microsoft.
“Instead of waiting for SP1, it may be that they’re waiting until they can afford to replace the hardware,” Cherry said.
The company has said Windows Vista sales have generally met its expectations thus far. It’s not unusual for many corporate customers to wait to upgrade.
Another difference from the past is the fact that Microsoft now regularly releases smaller updates and patches for download. Those fixes also will be included in the service pack, along with more substantial changes exclusive to the service pack, but customers didn’t necessarily have to wait for them.
Still, the service pack is “an important milestone,” said analyst Al Gillen, research vice president with the IDC research firm.
“For a lot of customers, they still wait to see a service pack because they feel that is the point in time where a Microsoft product has gotten to a level of testing or reliability where they have the confidence that the product is going to be stable enough for them to use,” Gillen said.
Microsoft says it will release a preliminary version of Service Pack 1, known in the industry as a beta, to a limited group of users for testing in the next few weeks. The beta will be expanded to more people later. The preliminary and final versions will be made available for free download over the Internet.
“We’re really viewing it as not a feature delivery vehicle but a way to fix some existing issues and enhance a few features, some capabilities that are already in the (operating system),” said David Zipkin, a Microsoft senior product manager.
For example, Zipkin said, Service Pack 1 will address Windows Vista performance problems including sluggish copying and unzipping of files; slowness in resuming from hibernate and standby; and a delay that some users experience when hitting Control-Alt-Delete to log in.
Microsoft is also trying to make Windows Vista more reliable, using error-reporting data to determine the “highest-impact” issues, Zipkin said.
Among other things, the company says the service pack will include support for the exFAT file system, for mobile devices. SP1 also will expand BitLocker encryption to local hard drives other than the C drive. And it will include Windows Vista security patches and other updates issued since the operating system was released.
In addition, the company says Service Pack 1 will introduce changes to Windows Vista’s hard-drive searching tool in accordance with an earlier agreement with the Justice Department, after Google said Windows Vista was unfair to rival hard-drive search programs. Vista is subject to government scrutiny under Microsoft’s U.S. antitrust settlement.
Separately, Microsoft said Wednesday morning that it’s releasing Service Pack 3 for Windows XP in preliminary form in the next few weeks and in final form in the first half of next year.
The company also is delaying Windows Server 2008′s release to manufacturing to the first quarter of next year.
Previously, Microsoft had been planning to release it by the end of this year. Analyst Cherry said he doesn’t expect the Windows Server delay to have a big effect, because many businesses wouldn’t have deployed it right away, anyway.
P-I reporter Todd Bishop can be reached at 206-448-8221 or toddbishop@seattlepi.com. Read his Microsoft blog at blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft.