Apple A Threat To Windows Vista. Re Write Confirmed
The marketing director of a key Microsoft partner has confirmed that key elements of Windows Vista are currently being re written. — Mr Raymond Vardanega, the Marketing Director, of Acer Australia has confirmed independently …
Context & Ripple Effects
The rewrite confirmation lands mid-arc for a Microsoft already managing perception problems on two fronts. In January, AppleInsider reported Microsoft working with Apple on the future of Virtual PC — cooperation between the two companies even as Apple positions itself against Vista. Now Raymond Vardanega of Acer Australia, speaking for a major OEM partner, has independently confirmed that key elements of Vista are being rewritten, and a separate report claiming Microsoft planned to rewrite 60% of Vista within two months circulates unconfirmed.
The story travelled unusually far for a single partner quote: CNET News.com picked it up the same day under an Office 2007-delay headline, and eWEEK framed the whole episode as whether Microsoft can make the trains run on time. That syndication pattern matters — the rewrite is being read less as an Acer scoop than as fresh evidence in a broader Microsoft slippage narrative, alongside the MIX06 close-out and the new IE feedback channel opened after customers compared Microsoft unfavorably to Firefox's Bugzilla.
First-order effects
- OEM partners such as Acer must now plan hardware roadmaps around a moving Vista target, since a confirmed rewrite of key elements puts ship-date certainty in doubt for machines meant to launch alongside the OS.
- Microsoft takes a simultaneous credibility hit across product lines — the same-day CNET pickup tied the Vista rewrite directly to Office 2007 running late, turning one partner quote into a schedule-wide story.
Second-order effects
- Apple gains a competitive window: with Vista's feature set visibly in flux before launch, the Mac-versus-Vista comparison becomes a pitch against an unshipped product rather than a benchmarked one, sharpening the 'Apple as threat' framing of the piece.
- Security vendors face a second front regardless of Vista's timing — Microsoft confirmed in February that Windows OneCare Live would reach consumers before summer, priced explicitly to challenge its main antivirus rivals, extending Microsoft's footprint into a market adjacent to the OS.
Third-order effects
- If flagship-product rewrites become the norm rather than the exception, Microsoft's release discipline itself — not feature checklists — becomes the competitive variable OEMs and enterprise buyers price in when planning around Redmond.
- Customer pressure for openness is starting to shape Microsoft's process: the IE team's response to Bugzilla comparisons with a public bug-entry channel signals that closed development is becoming a reputational cost, a structural shift independent of any single Vista delay.
The trend: Microsoft's mid-decade slippage on Vista and Office is shifting the desktop competition from feature comparisons against shipped software to trust in shipping dates, with Apple the beneficiary whenever Redmond's timeline moves.