Vista, Office 2007 to launch in U.S. Nov. 30

After years of waiting, U.S. business customers will finally have a chance to get their hands on Windows Vista and Office 2007 when Microsoft Corp. launches the products on Nov. 30 at an event in New York City.

The company sent by e-mail invitations to a launch event, called Microsoft New Day for Business on Wednesday. According to the e-mail, the event "will mark the business availability of three major releases from Microsoft Corp." In addition to Vista and Office 2007, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 also will be released to business customers at the event.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steve Ballmer will be on hand for the event, along with Microsoft partners and customers, according to the invitation. The event will be held at the Nasdaq Stock Market in midtown Manhattan and the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

Microsoft will launch the products in Canada slightly earlier than in the U.S., the IDG News Service previously reported. According to the MSDN Canada site, Microsoft will hold New Day for Business events throughout Canada starting in Edmonton, Alberta, on Nov. 23.

Following the Edmonton event, which will be held at the Shaw Conference Centre, Microsoft will hold events in Toronto on Dec. 5, Montreal on Dec. 7, Ottawa on Dec. 12 and other cities throughout the country through January 2007.

Even though Vista and Office 2007 will be available to business customers later this month, many business customers have said they likely will not upgrade to Vista right away but will hold off until they do hardware upgrades or can justify the cost of the new OS. Microsoft is hoping customers will deploy Vista and Office 2007 together, and is planning press interviews in New York on Monday to discuss specifically the benefits of doing so.

The general release of Vista and Office 2007 is still on track for January 2007.