Survey Explores Vista's Corporate Calamity

Why is it that Windows Vista hasn't completely taken over the operating system (OS) market? Is it glitches? Security concerns? Too many Microsoft-haters? According to one survey, it seems no one has a problem with the Redmond-based company at all. In fact, it's the success of its last OS that is keeping Vista on store shelves.

In a recent survey of some six hundred U.S. and European companies employing over a thousand people each, 84% of all PCs continue to run Windows XP, Microsoft's last great OS. That's actually an increase of 67% from the year before, despite the fact that Windows Vista has now been available to corporate users since November, 2006 (and to the general public since January).

The survey was performed by Forrester Research Inc., an independent technology and research firm. According to Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray, "The big story isn't that 32% of the companies we surveyed said that they would start Vista deployments by the end of next year...It's that companies have been hugely successful in standardizing on Windows XP."

The promises of 32% of those polled to upgrade to Vista in the next year are indeed promising for Microsoft, which has struggled with critics in the media over the value of its recent OS. Another 17% feel they'll be ready for the jump in 2009 or 2010. (Source: nvunet.com)

Still, our Forrester Research analyst is not convinced the future is as rosy as it sounds for Vista. "There are plenty of companies looking forward to XP SP3," he said.

So, what's the reason for this corporate procrastination?

According to Forrester and their survey, reasons for the corporate delay aren't much different than the feelings espoused by most home users. Gray believes that application incompatibility is "a big, big headache," causing many businesses to "take a wait-and-see approach to Vista." (Source: pcworld.com)

Other issues preventing corporate (or home) adoption of Vista include a confusing price and feature scheme.

It seems hard to believe that Microsoft could have produced two operating systems with such contrasting public perceptions. Regardless, there's no other way to put it: young Vista's greatest enemy is none other than its aging older brother.