The 31 Flavors Of Vista?
OK, so the subhead for this section is a bit of hyperbole. But Microsoft has long said that Vista would arrive in multiple versions. And the company has been working on just what those versions will be for quite some time. Windows XP comes in a variety of versions: Home Edition, Professional, Tablet PC Edition, Media Center Edition, and Professional x64 Edition, as well as an enterprise licensing option. If early reports are true, Windows Vista Home Edition will ship in three versions: Vista Starter Edition, Home Basic Edition, and Home Premium Edition. The Business Editions will be available in four versions: Professional Edition, Small Business Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Ultimate Edition. Vista Pro would not include some high-end digital features that Vista Home Premium Edition would. But Vista Pro would support more RAM and two processors.
Takeaways: Microsoft has pledged to ship more flavors of Windows Vista. I believe the company's intent is to make more money from the high-end versions while at the same time extending market share at the lower end by reducing the cost of Windows, somewhat. (Pricing had not been announced or leaked as of press time.) The details that have emerged so far lead me to suspect that Microsoft is running the whole idea up the flagpole, informally, to see how customers will respond. The differences between three of the four Business versions are mostly minor, just packaging, much the way Microsoft Office has been differentiated for several years. I think businesses will take that in stride.
Three Home editions of Vista, including one called Starter Edition, sound like a good idea if it means reduced costs. But it will be incumbent on OEM (original equipment manufacturer) PC makers to explain this to home PC buyers. Given the many features reportedly not in Vista's Starter Edition (and even next-level-up Home Basic Edition), there’s a huge potential for home user frustration. For example, the Starter Edition doesn’t support networking or display resolutions higher than 1,024 x 768.
One thing I like a lot about the plan as leaked is that Vista Home Premium Edition will contain the Tablet PC and Media Center functionality. More than likely, 90% of the new consumer PCs that ship will come with Premium Edition installed because it’s the one closest to WinXP Home. So one of the key questions will be the cost. If Microsoft raises the price above the cost of WinXP Home, I think it will hurt the consumer PC marketplace quite a bit.
Over the next year, I suspect Microsoft will give us a lot more to think about as it gears up to launch new versions of Office, Windows, and Internet Explorer.
