Vista: Users do want it, apparently...

Despite doubts about how quickly consumers and businesses are taking up the latest Windows OS, Microsoft remains upbeat about Vista adoption.

In last week's profits announcement, Microsoft reported a 25 per cent increase in revenue from the unit that sells Windows for laptop and desktop PCs. Some of that increase comes from a crackdown on piracy and because more people are opting for premium versions of Vista. But the company has now managed to sell 88 million copies of the operating system.

On the business side, uptake has been slower. Microsoft finally acknowledged it won't hit its goal of having Vista in use on twice as many business PCs as were running XP in its first 12 months on the market.

Neil Charney, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Client unit, said: "We think the adoption is pretty much at the rate commensurate with past releases." He added that the original goal represented an "enthusiastic assessment" of where Microsoft might be able to get. Analysts at the time said Microsoft's prediction was overly ambitious.

However the software behemoth said it is seeing some positive signs on the business front, notably a rise in the number of businesses signing long-term deals that cover Windows.

Mike Nash, vice president of Windows product management, said: "They wouldn't be signing these agreements if they didn't have the intent to [deploy Vista]."

Al Gillen, IDC analyst, said while corporations may be planning their Vista move, most large companies buying PCs are still immediately reinstalling Windows XP.

Gillen said, businesses are "certainly not rushing into it more quickly than they have other Windows' [releases]".

He said, historically, large companies tend to drag their feet on deploying new operating systems, preferring to wait until bugs and compatibility issues are ironed out. A catalyst for some businesses could be the first service pack update of Vista, due early next year.

Even some consumers and small businesses have been opting to downgrade. Dell and other PC makers brought back XP on consumer and small-business machines earlier this year, while more recently some PC makers have made it easier for those buying Vista machines to return to XP.

But Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, said while there may be a few PCs still on the market that have XP, it's Vista consumers are buying.

Ballmer said: "Yes, there's one or two models you can find someplace in the world of PCs that don't run Windows Vista but the machines that sell all run Windows Vista."

Microsoft said to expect strong marketing from key partners such as HP in the run up to Christmas. Microsoft has also started an online marketing campaign touting the benefits of combining Vista with Microsoft's Windows Live services - the most significant melding of the operating system and online businesses to date.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com