Customer upgrades to Vista no sure thing

InfoWorld | at | by Mike

Now that Microsoft has finalized Windows Vista's six editions, the challenge at hand for the company is to encourage customers to upgrade once the new OS is available.

And that challenge is nothing to sneeze at, customers and analysts said. According to them, Microsoft faces a variety of hurdles that could deter upgrades to the new OS, which is expected to ship toward the end of this year.

One major roadblock might be the sheer number of editions of Vista expected to be available at launch, said Joe Wilcox, analyst with JupiterResearch. Microsoft's last major Windows upgrade, Windows XP, launched with only two editions -- Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional, he said. XP is now available in five editions, but the others -- Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition and Professional x64 Edition -- were added after launch.