Gartner begrudgingly admits Vista will be on time

As Windows Vista's November launch date gets closer, more and more analysts and journalists have admitted that Microsoft is on track to release Vista during the company's specified launch window. The lone holdout has been Gartner, who doggedly insisted that the OS would be delayed by Microsoft's dealings with the European Commission. Well, it looks like the circle is now complete (to borrow a turn of phrase), as Gartner has finally given in as well. "Following last Friday's announcement that Vista is on schedule, it appears that Microsoft has made much faster progress than many (including Gartner) had expected in getting its next Windows OS ready for release," wrote Gartner's VP of research, Brian Gammage. However, the firm remains critical of Microsoft (you didn't think that they would go out without a fight, did you?), asserting that a consumer release of Vista in January will hurt the industry as a whole--by delaying demand for PCs until Q1 2007 and causing a shortfall in revenue for the last quarter of 2006.

For more on Gartner's take on Vista:
- take a look at this entry on Gartner's Vista Blog