The head of Taiwan-based PC maker Acer, Gianfranco Lanci, openly criticized Microsoft over its newest operating system saying that "the whole industry is disappointed with Windows Vista" and that never before in the history of the PC manufacturing sector was the impact on sales of a version of Windows as small as that of Vista.
The Vista adoption trend continues though. It should pass Mac OS X by the end of August, and eventually overtake XP too. However, Lanci is not worried about the OS' market share, but other major flaws affecting Windows Vista. It's not a secret that Vista was plagued with hardware compatibility problems since day one. Acer, which is the world's fourth largest manufacturer of PCs, claims many business customers have specifically asked for Windows XP to be installed on their new machines.
Lanci said he didn't believe Vista was enough to tempt a person to go out and buy a new PC. But Microsoft, on the other hand, says Vista has been a smashing success, celebrating over 20 million Vista licenses sold by March. What's more, at some point Microsoft will limit the availability of XP to push people to Vista. The company already announced it would terminate sales of Windows XP to resellers and retail after January 2008.