“LOS ANGELES ? Research firm Gartner Inc. (IT) turned soothsayer on Wednesday by predicting that Windows Vista will be the last big release of Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows operating system.”
I was surprised when I read the article this came from. What does anyone else think? Gartner is alleged to be predicting that instead of shipping a new product out in a few years, Vista will be incrementally upgraded periodically, and there will be no new versions of Windows, just upgraded/updated Vista.
My experience with Microsoft products has been just that: Microsoft makes products. I cannot conceive of them not making a new product, but supporting the same product for years. It seems like its against their own rules. Their business cycle has seemed to hinge on the releasing of a new product line every few years.
If MS does this, its not a complaint, it just seems odd based on their past behavior. In fact, one of my (many) complaints about them was that they never seemed to have a stabilized product, but always released something completely different every few years. Maybe they are listening to our complaints, after all. A stable, never changing Windows would also stabilize other markets, such as hardware and application software. So there would be other benefits too.
Many of you are better qualified to comment than I am. What’s your take on this?