Noting that Bill Gates had said during his Monday keynote speech that there are now 100 million people using Vista, we wanted to know whether Intel consider Vista a success in driving PC upgrades--or was 100 million installs simply a reflection of the market's growth rate? In other words, after five years in development, was Vista having any impact on moving hardware, and by extension Intel processors?
Before the question could even be finished, Otellini shook his head and said, "no," he was not getting into any discussion about Vista.
We considered that not just odd, given Otellini's history of taking on all questions, but a sign that Intel is seriously displeased with Vista. If that weren't true, why couldn't the CEO muster even a lukewarm response like, "We certainly think Vista a superior OS, but after five years in development we would have hoped it had more of an impact on creating a demand for PC upgrades."
We followed up by asking if he preferred Apple's approach to OS development--rolling out an upgrade every 18 months or so--versus Microsoft's multiyear process. Otellini responded that he had heard that Gates said a day earlier that there could be one more monolithic Windows upgrade. "If that's true," Otellini paused before continuing, "I would rather have them move a lot faster and keep up with silicon technology."
Intel refuses to talk about Vista
Posted on Sunday, January 13 2008 @ 14:45 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck