In a press conference call last Tuesday, Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division co-president Jim Allchin announced that Windows Vista will be available to business in November 2006 and broad consumer availability in January 2007.

So Windows Vista will miss the 2006 holiday season, something that computer manufacturers will no doubt not be happy about.

According to Allchin, Vista is on target to go into broad consumer beta to approximately 2 million users in the second quarter of 2006.

"Product quality and a great out-of-box experience have been two of our key drivers for Windows Vista, and we are on track to deliver on both," said Jim Allchin. "But the industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during holiday. We must optimize for the industry, so we've decided to separate business and consumer availability."

Because of the way businesses test and deploy software, it makes sense for Microsoft volume licensing customers to receive Windows Vista starting in November of this year. Availability for consumers and on new PCs will follow in January.

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