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July 24, 2008 11:32 AM

FAM: How is Windows doing with businesses?

Posted by Benjamin J. Romano

Bill Veghte, Microsoft senior vice president of Online Services and the Windows Business Group, is telling financial analysts about the success of Windows Vista and the improvements in the product and its adoption in the last year.

On security, for example, Windows Vista is 62 percent more secure than Windows XP SP2, he said.

Microsoft has sold 180 million Vista licenses since it launched in January 2007. Sales have been "very balanced" between consumer and business customers.

Enterprises are accelerating their deployments of Vista, particularly since Microsoft released Service Pack 1 in March. Veghte said deployment is consistent with what Microsoft saw with Windows XP.

Contrast Veghte's sunny presentation with this note from market researcher Forrester:

"[E]ighteen months after its release, Vista is still struggling to gain a foothold in large companies. Vista use remains in the single digits: just under 9 percent according to Forrester's month-by-month desktop analysis of 50,000 of our enterprise clients across 2,300 companies. That's up from 6 percent in January of this year, but far short of the 87 percent penetration for Windows XP. 'Vista is "new Coke," ' writes Forrester analyst Thomas Mendel."

Veghte talked about the strength of the overall Windows business with enterprises. He said 80 percent of enterprises renewed their Windows volume-licensing agreements. If the question is whether big enterprises are buying Windows Vista, "the answer is emphatically yes," Veghte said.

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