As many of you may know, Vista sales haven’t been that stellar lately or as popular as Microsoft had hopped for and as it turns out it’s even less popular with software developers.  This news really doesn’t bold too well for Microsoft considering they have put all their “OS eggs” into one basket with Vista’s success.

Microsoft announced the imminent retirement of XP which should become evident in the retail chains and OEMs in the near future. With that said, the only major operating system Microsoft has moved on to focus is Vista. The only problem with their plan is we the consumers have not moved on to Vista and neither have the developers.

Software compatibility is one of the biggest problem Vista face with some XP designed applications failing to work properly in Vista. Developers are also slow to make the move because they feel the lack of consumer demand allows them to keep pushing Vista development further into the future. I can attest to this as a software developer, I have experienced project manager’s pushing Vista development slated for 2008 off into late 2009 citing the reason being due to low priority of the project.

This move collaborates what PC World is reporting, that currently there is very little development on Vista this year but many have 2009 as their estimated project start date for development. According to PC World, a recent survey conducted with a sample pool of 380 developers only 8% of them were actually working on a Vista related initiative.  That is almost non-existent development going on for Vista.

The survey also revealed that about 29% of the developers will continue to target XP next year, while 24% plan on targeting Vista in 2009. These statistics are promising, but realistically most projects who have 2009 as a placeholder are just that, placeholders for what could happen, and not what will happen. Most likely if Vista does not reach near 80% penetration many developers may forgo Vista development altogether.

Related:

Most developers prefer XP over Vista

Misleading report downplays developer support for Vista

Microsoft prepares developers for Windows 7 problems

Is the Vista madness over? Ballmer finally mentions “Windows Cloud”

Earth to Microsoft: to sell Windows Vista, how about updating Outlook?

Entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 3:36 am under Microsoft, Uncategorized, Vista, xp.  Print This Post

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