Thank Google for Any Delays to Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 by Andy Beal

Thank Google for Any Delays to Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1

Microsoft has proved the value in the saying “easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,” when it comes to Vista. After Google complained to the Justice Department that Vista unfairly made it difficult to use a desktop search tool other than Microsoft’s own “Instant Search”, the company has acquiesced and agreed to make changes when it releases Vista Service Pack 1.

So, we can all thank Google for delaying the release of Vista SP 1. Why? If you were Microsoft, would you be in a hurry to change Vista from its default Microsoft offering? We’ll likely not see SP 1 until the end of the year, giving MSFT almost 12 months to switch computer users over to Instant Search.

It’s a crafty move and proves there’s value in simply seeing what you can get away with.

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6 comments on “Thank Google for Any Delays to Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1”

Steven Bradley Says:

June 20th, 2007 at 2:13 pm

I know many are wondering how Microsoft wouldn’t see this coming, but I think they knew exactly what would happen and since they’ve mentioned SP1 will be out later in the year they do get to use that OS monopoly to convert users to their search for nearly a year.

We should probably expect to see Microsoft using this strategy in the future. A year of capitalizing on their market share is better than no time at all.
Google makes Microsoft change Vista | Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot Says:

June 20th, 2007 at 3:57 pm

[...] An interesting idea that Marketing Pilgrim put forward is that Microsoft will be dragging it’s feet on this service pack to try and get as many people hooked on it’s product set as possible. Originally SP1 was slated to be available later this year, but this announcement pushes it into the beginning of next year. Is Google really to blame? Or is Microsoft simply using this as an excuse to hide slippage on their SP1 release? Interesting .. the games big companies play. Some related posts: [...]
Eduardo Fenili Says:

June 20th, 2007 at 5:04 pm

I doubt SP1 will be very important anyways. It obviously will be nice to get a few fixes and some other things but I remember the mention that it will be more like SP1 for XP which was more along the lines of minor bug fixes and a few house cleaning things instead of the OS overhaul that SP2 was. I believe the big change and what will sway people into Vista from XP will be when SP2 comes out in the not so near future. I don’t see this delay as anything significant.
Fitness guy Says:

June 20th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

Deja Vu!!! I so enjoy having to “click to activate this control” every time a flash control is in IE…Same deal..use the technology..get sued..fix it (sort of) in a sp way down the road.
Mark Says:

June 20th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

Given the number of people and organizations waiting, or saying they are waiting for SP1 before switching to Vista I doubt making Google wait for the changes is as important as getting SP1 out as fast as possible.
» From the ‘I’m glad I’m not a Vista salesperson’ files | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com Says:

June 21st, 2007 at 9:26 am

[...] Unlike “Marketing Pilgrim” Andy Beal, I don’t think Microsoft wants to postpone SP1, at this point. I think the company realizes its attempt to get customers to change their SP1-waiting ways hasn’t worked. All the Vista SP1 secrecy has backfired and drawn more attention to the whereabouts of the Vista update. [...]

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