Microsoft Corp's efforts to release its Windows Vista operating system in January is likely to be stalled.
Chief executive Steve Ballmer refused to commit to the January release date, but insisted the firm was confident Vista would be released to consumers next year.
'At this stage, I think the most important thing is that we ship a high-quality release. You know, we didn't make Christmas. That was the big milestone,' he said.
When Microsoft announced in March that Vista would not make its Christmas release, it said the product was on track to be available in January. Vista's release for corporate volume licensing customers was due in November.
Research firm Gartner said wide availability of Vista was not expected until at least the second quarter next year, as Microsoft had a history of missing new operating system release targets. Vista was originally planned as a 2004 release.
But the final decision on releasing Vista apparently rests on the product-refresh timetables of the major computer vendors, such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo.