Commentary: Latest operating system will make or break its dominance
BERKEEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Some observers think that Windows 7, the next iteration of the Microsoft franchise/cash cow operating system will make or break the company after its poorly received Windows Vista.
Microsoft seems to be playing its normal tease-the-customer game a little differently and it is not immediately clear what will happen when Windows 7 is released.
First of all Windows 7 kind of showed up out-of-the-blue with mixed messages from "it's just being coded now" to "it's almost ready to ship.
There is no real handle on when this product actually will ship with estimates ranging from just before summer to sometime in 2010. The company would like something on the shelves before Christmas.
Most of the profits made by Microsoft are the result of licenses for its Windows franchise and the Office suite, both of which are under attack by competitors who all seem to be making headway. Thus the price of Microsoft (MSFT:![]()
MSFT 16.65, -0.36, -2.1%) stock is depressed despite excellent sales.
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And of course, the stock is not bolstered by various comments from CEO Steve Ballmer as he appears to be emphasizing selling advertising one minute, the search engine, pursuing Yahoo and cloud computing.
I think it's a miracle that they are doing Windows 7 at all.
That said, everyone who is running the early release versions of Windows 7 beta, love it and this appears to bode well for the company. They all say that it is fast and rock solid and is just a lot better than Vista. It also seems to be more compatible with older programs and legacy hardware.
It has been proclaimed a winner by the users.
Well, not so fast. Microsoft may be pulling a fast one with the beta release because this is not the finished product. Let me explain.
As a beta program it probably does not have any of the security measures built into it the way a release product would. For one thing security is not too important with a beta product since hackers have not targeted it in any way, nor will they until the final product ships.
All that zippy performance that everyone is jacked up about will disappear once the burden of security precautions and patches begins.
For all we know the whole OS could turn into an incredible pig after this happens. We simply do not know the outcome.
All that we do know for sure is that the Microsoft track record is not good and there is no reason to think anything has fundamentally changed.
And with all the distractions of cloud computing and the new Kumo search engine it is hard to imagine that the OS group would actually do a better job with less attention.
Then again, perhaps the meddlers in a company like Microsoft are so occupied with the newer initiatives they will leave the OS group stranded where they can, perhaps, accomplish more without all the interference, oversight and people looking over their shoulder. It sure seems that's the way things are going.
We'll know more in the months ahead, but for now much of the future of this company is banking on getting Windows 7 right. I do not think the company is going to get another chance to maintain its dominant position in the world of computing if it fails.