Vista Sales: Victory Of Hope Over Reason

Much of Microsoft’s gain to a multiyear hight was placed at the feet of a survey by NPD Group that stated sales of the new OS were doing better than expected.

Oddly enough, the report said the Vista was not doing as well in sales to enterprises as XP did five years ago when it was launched, but investors seemed to want to grasp any straw that they thought was positive and (MSFT) staged an impressive rally.

If Vista is off to a strong start with business it is certainly better news that no adoption at all. And, the theory that the operating system’s early success will help the current quarter’s financials may be true.

However, very few investors thought that Vista’s adoption by large businesses was in doubt, so the early sales are probably adding revenue in the current quarter and pulling revenue from future quarters. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is hardly a reason for rejoicing.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about