So Jim Allchin has admitted that Windows Vista will not be generally available until Janusary 2007. Look at the press release on the new “Road Map“:

“REDMOND, Wash. — March 21, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today confirmed that Windows Vista, the next generation of the Windows client operating system, is on target to go into broad consumer beta to approximately 2 million users in the second quarter of 2006. Microsoft is on track to complete the product this year, with business availability in November 2006 and broad consumer availability in January 2007.”

That misses the Christmas and other holidays season for 2006. That’s a monster disaster, not only for Microsoft, but for all the other computer manufacturers who will have to sell XP machines just a month (?) or so before Vista becomes “broadly available”. And what does that mean? Spring 2007?

Mini-Microsoft is typically blunt:

2007.

It certainly sounded like Microsoft leadership committed to us, our customers, our partners, and our shareholders that Vista would be out in 2006.

Slip!

We should have asked for more details around the “or else” part of that commitment.

I was upset at missing the back-to-school market. Now we’re missing the holiday sales market. All of those laptops and PCs are going to have XP on it.

A product due for 2003 is now slated for 2007. A complete product cycle has been missed. Woe, woe and thrice woe!

As Mini demands: Fire the leadership now.