M’soft’s Vista: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread!

Step right up, step right up! Yes siree, Bob, as Microsoft revs up the Windows Vista marketing engine, it's touting the economic boon the software is expected to bring to the rest of the technology industry.

Microsoft commissioned an economic-impact study, released Sunday night, that suggests Vista will help generate $70 billion in revenue and 157,000 new information-technology jobs in 2007.

The 14-page study by IDC draws on the research firm's published data and forecasts covering all segments of the IT industry, including hardware producers, third-party software vendors and service providers.

IDC estimated the portion of the industry tied to Windows Vista to determine what amount of incremental growth it might produce.

"There is economic activity that's going to happen anyway, but we think Vista will have a bump effect in 2007," said John Gantz, IDC's chief research officer.

Vista, the first new version of Microsoft's flagship operating system in five years, was launched last month for business customers and will be available to consumers late next month.

The 157,000-job gain IDC attributes to Vista is in addition to normal employment growth in the industry. Gantz acknowledged that those workers may not work on Vista exclusively.

"It's the share of employment that's driven by Windows or that touches Windows," he said.

IDC forecasts that for every dollar of revenue Microsoft brings in directly from Vista in 2007, the rest of the industry will see $18 in revenue.

IDC expects Microsoft to ship 35 million copies of Vista in the United States, generating nearly $4 billion in revenue in 2007. (That works out to about $114 in revenue per copy of Vista sold.) Using IDC's multiplier, Vista could be worth $70 billion in revenue to the IT industry in the U.S. next year.

See, Microsoft doesn’t just care about its balance sheet, it cares about you and you. And yes, all of us!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003471536_btvistaimpact11.html