Nothing is less credible today in the IT world than a promise made by Microsoft. When they say something is “on track�? you should rather understand that it is the other way around, i.e. �?off track�? (I cited Steve Ballmer who said at a conference in Japan at the end of May that “Vista is on track�?, when first rumors about another delay of Vista came out).

I really don’t know if anyone at the Worldwide Partner Conference, held by Microsoft on Tuesday in Boston, believed Steve Ballmer when he said: “We’re going to put massive effort into launching these products … at the consumer level as well as at the business level,” referring of course to Windows Vista and Office 2007, but also to products launched under the Live! brand, like Windows Live Messenger.

There were more than 7,000 people there, but every one of them got disappointed with the fact that they got nothing more than vague and general promises, but nothing clear about Vista and Office release dates.

On the other side of Earth, the other “head�? of Microsoft gave gladly the final blow to our hopes: “We got to get this absolutely right,” Bill Gates said. “If the feedback from the beta tests shows it is not ready for prime time, I’d be glad to delay it.”

The Microsoft partners in Boston represent a diverse group of businesses serving the entire spectrum of information-technology needs, all based on Microsoft products.

In addition to retailers, there are partners that build advanced networks or write industry-tailored software. Others consult on upgrades or install and service systems.

They range in size from sole proprietorships to global giants such as Accenture, which has 133,000 employees. Microsoft counts 640,000 partner businesses globally.

Their gathering there is vital to Microsoft and this is why Ballmer tried (unsuccessfully in my opinion) to convince them to not lose the patience they’ve already lost. As a group they bring Microsoft about 96% of its total revenues, the absolute majority of the money the Redmond company gets, expect for what is sells on www.microsoft.com.
According to estimates, Windows OS and the Office suite have accounted together last year about 58% of Microsoft’s total revenues, and their never-ending delays cannot have a positive impact on the incomes for the Redmond software giant.

Not later than the beginning of this month Microsoft announced another delay for Office 2007, which will be available “early in 2007�? for the end-users, and “by the end of 2006�? for corporate customers. The previous release dates mentioned October 2006 for corporate segment and January 2007 for end-users, meaning that Office would be launched simultaneously with Windows Vista.

A group of partners for Microsoft found out in Cape Town, South Africa, that Bill Gates is ready and “glad�? to postpone again Windows Vista, if it turns out to be too vulnerable or if it doesn’t meet clients’ demands. Excuse me mister Gates, but what have your engineers done since 2001? I’m sure you can always get the Linux users to help you if you feel in need. Of course, I agree that I wouldn’t spend my money on Vista if it turns out to be a crap, but at least calibrate your efforts so that no more lies about its release are told.

It seems that this is what Steve Ballmer is hinting at back in Boston: “Rest assured, we will never have a gap between Windows releases as long as the one between XP and Windows Vista,” Ballmer said. “Count on it.” Well, mister Ballmer, I’m sorry, but my experience with your company until now hasn’t been very happy concerning this aspect…
Surprisingly, for some of Microsoft’s partners, delays are actually helpful, providing an opportunity to gain expertise on the new products.

“A slip in the technology in some ways gives us time and room in the services business,” said Allison Watson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group.

Also software companies are getting more time to test their applications built to run on Vista. Microsoft said Tuesday nearly 1,000 of its software partners have built applications to run on Vista.

The ones that suffer from the delays are the hardware and network equipment producers, although Vista is surely to boost their sales after its appearance on the market. This is due to the fact that it requires more powerful hardware components to run at its best. Mainly, you will need at least 1GB of RAM (2GB is the ideal configuration for 64-bit Vista; Vista 32-bit will work ideally at 1GB, and minimum 512. However, since 64-bit is handling data chunks that are double the size, you’ll need double the memory, hence the 2GB) at least 64MB video card, but not using the old AGP, for this is “not optimal�? (because of the fact that graphics cards may have to utilize main system memory for some rendering tasks, a fast, bi-direction bus is needed - that’s PCI express), at least 15GB free on your hard-drive (SATA format is definitely the way forward for Vista, due, Microsoft tells us, to Native Command Queuing. NCQ allows for out of order completions - that is, if Vista needs tasks 1,2,3,4 and 5 done, it can do them in the order 2,5,3,4,1 if that’s a more efficient route for the hard drive head to take over the disk. This leads to far faster completion times. NCQ is supported on SATA2 drives).

Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox said he sees the possibility of further delays, which could erode confidence in the company among its partners.

“How much confidence does it instill when the chairman of the company says 80 percent?” Wilcox said.
Ballmer on the contrary outlined Microsoft’s moves into business-intelligence software to track a company’s performance; collaboration and search products designed to let workers easily find and share information across the Internet, desktop computers and company databases; communications technologies to centralize e-mails, instant messaging, Internet phone calls and video conferencing; and security.

“You will have choices this year,” Ballmer said. “Do you work with us on security or do you work with your traditional vendors on security [or] do you work with both of us?”

“One of Microsoft’s biggest assets is the partner network, and that ends up being one of the biggest challenges when it comes to selling software as a service,” said Rob Bois, senior research analyst at AMR Research in Boston. “There aren’t many software companies that have been successful making a change to software as a service and maintaining that partner network. It’s very difficult to do.”

Ballmer said Microsoft wants to do exactly that.

“We are 100 percent convinced that the transition our industry will make over the next five to 10 years … is going to require that we bring you, our partner community, with us,” he said.