Ballmer: It's OK to wait for Windows 7

Some companies are planning to skip Windows Vista, and that's OK, according to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

But speaking at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference in Orlando in the US this week, Ballmer said, ZDNet.com.au sister site ZDNet.com reported, that those companies could come back for Windows 7. "If people want to wait they really can," Ballmer said. "But I'd definitely deploy Vista."

Steve Ballmer(Credit: Gartner)

Ballmer defended Vista and noted that "the adoption rate of Vista is two times faster than XP at two years in".

Ballmer did note that Vista has had compatibility problems with some applications and hardware, but that those problems have diminished. "We had a great success with security and starting to see a ramp with adoption."

Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald countered with Gartner survey data showing that 61 per cent of respondents are thinking about skipping Vista altogether. Ballmer said that Microsoft would be ready for that outcome and reiterated Microsoft's pledge that Windows 7 will be compatible with Vista.

"Our next release of Windows will be compatible with Vista. The key is let's get on with it. We'll be ready when you want to deploy Windows 7."

Ballmer also responded to questions about whether Microsoft would revisit its offer for Yahoo, given the drop in Yahoo's share price. "We offered US$33 bucks (for Yahoo) and it's US$11 today," said Ballmer. "It's clear Yahoo didn't want to sell. They probably still think it's worth more than US$33 a share. I still think it makes sense for their shareholders and ours."

Finally, Ballmer again teased Microsoft's upcoming cloud operating system announcement, which he said will take place at the company's developer conference in Los Angeles at month's end. "We have a big announcement in two weeks at our Professional Developers Conference and we're going to run through this stuff," said Ballmer. He said it's critical that Microsoft has a platform in the cloud.