iWait on Microsoft

Vista is being delayed. Again. It looks like the consumer version won’t hit the market until 2007. Some quotes from the Wall Street Journal:

[Microsoft]The Redmond, Wash., software giant, which had been expected to begin selling Vista in October, said it will begin offering a version of the product for businesses in November. A consumer version will become broadly available in January, said James Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division.

Microsoft’s Mr. Allchin said that the major reason for the delay — which amounts to several weeks beyond the original expected launch date — is to give Microsoft more time to improve the “quality” of Vista. He said Microsoft needs a few more weeks to test the security and other quality aspects of the product.

That’s because the early versions of new Microsoft products tend to contain glitches that need to be repaired with programming fixes issued at a later date, according to Mr. Dator.

“Their first releases are always filled with bugs, so my guess is corporate users are going to take a long time to evaluate Vista before actually buying it,” said Mr. Dator.