Vista to benefit partners more than Microsoft

A new IDC report on the impact of Windows Vista on the industry claims Microsoft's business partners stand to benefit more financially from the OS than Microsoft itself will in 2007.

According to the report on the U.S. economic impact of Vista, for every one U.S. dollar Microsoft makes on Vista in 2007, Microsoft partners that offer software, hardware and services related to Vista will make $18.

"If there's a surprising thing to people, it's how extensively a Microsoft piece of software ripples out through the ecosystem," said John Gantz, one of the IDC analysts who wrote the report. "Microsoft, as a software vendor, casts a bigger shadow than its revenues."

IDC analysts Al Gillen and Marcel Warmerdam co-wrote the report, released Monday, which was commissioned by Microsoft.

The report also said that 35 percent to 45 percent of new PCs that ship to enterprises in 2007 will run Vista. "Some thought [adoption] would move faster," Gantz said. "But to me, that's relatively quick."

However, he added that most of the Vista adoption in the enterprise will come from new PCs, not upgrades to enterprise computers that are running an earlier version of Windows. And 2008 will be the year Vista really takes hold in the enterprise, with about 80 percent of PCs being shipped to businesses running the OS, and nearly 40 percent of the enterprise installed base running Vista, Gantz said.

According to the report, Vista will be good not only for the wallets of Microsoft partners in 2007, but also for the IT industry in general. The OS should produce more than 100,000 new jobs in 2007, according to the report.

IDC said that within the U.S. in 2007, as many as 200,000 IT companies that produce, sell or distribute products or services running on Vista will employ more than 660,000 people. Another 1.15 million will be employed at companies using the OS. And more than 60 percent of the growth in Windows-related employment will be driven by Vista, according to the report.