Microsoft formally launched its new version of the Windows operating system at a series of events in Dublin attended by approximately 3,000 business customers.
The company also simultaneously launched the 2007 version of the Microsoft Office suite and Exchange Server 2007 which provides e-mail and other communications tools.
Businesses customers who have a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft can receive Windows Vista and 2007 Office immediately, but home users will have to wait until the January 30th next before they can buy the products in shops or pre-loaded on a new PC.
Speaking at the launch Pierre Liautaud, vice-president of Microsoft western Europe, said that "the jury is out" on how quickly business customers will adopt the new operating system, versions of which run on over 90 per cent of the world's PCs. But he said he was "very confident" after the early-adopter programme Microsoft ran for the products saw a number of customers invest in Vista before the launch.
Mr Liautaud said Vista's key features were its improved communication and collaboration tools, enhanced search capability, tightened security and the supports Microsoft put in place to manage and deploy it more cheaply.
Industry analysts have given varied figures for the likely adoption rates of Vista over the next year, but all agree that consumers will embrace it quicker than corporate entities who could face disruption to their business by upgrading. Analysts predicted that 100 million PCs will be running Vista by the end of 2007 and Mr Liautaud said he expected a "significant number of those will be businesses".
At the Irish event, it was announced that building giant Kingspan and Wicklow-based credit card acquirer EuroConex are at advanced stages of evaluating Vista for specific projects.
Microsoft Ireland's managing director, Joe Macri, said 4,000 people registered for the launch events in Croke Park yesterday but it could only accommodate 3,000. Mr Macri confirmed the company would spend over twice as much on the launch of the new products as it invested in its marketing campaign around productivity last year. At the time, Microsoft said it was spending €1 million on marketing and advertising.
Mr Macri predicted that 50 per cent of business PCs in Ireland would be ready for Vista by the end of this year.
Neil Armstrong, the former US astronaut who became the first man to walk on the moon in 1969, delivered a keynote address at the Croke Park event.
