From: Gary Britt 

The last time MS rolled out an operating system Sarbannes Oxley didn't
exist.  The penalties for not shooting straight or straighter than in the
past with analysts is far more severe now than when XP rolled out.  That
could be the factor causing some amount of greater truth to be coming out
this time around.

Gary

Rich Gauszka wrote:
> The bloggers respond to Ballmer's sales switch
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/5013
>
> Rick Sherlund of Goldman Sachs ... argues ... Microsoft talks down analysts
> at the beginning of almost every year, so this sort of thing is somewhat
> ritualistic ...
> This time is different, however. Rather than saying numbers looked high,
> overall, Ballmer was talking down specific numbers on a specific highly
> important new product, Vista. While there was almost certainly an element of
> typical Microsoft-ian analyst gaming, this will still an unusual move,
> doubly so in the nervous circumstances, with an increasing number of people
> worried that Vista uptake is poor anyway. For Ballmer to add to those
> worries with highly specific concerns about that key product was testimony
> to how there is real problem here.
>
> "mike"  wrote in message
> news:7j1kt2pqis0a076fegmp119hu09p4k257k{at}4ax.com...
>> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37721
>>
>> ===
>> THE SHY and retiring, softly-spoken CEO of Microsoft, Steve "Sounds of
>> Silence" Ballmer is blaming software pirates for Vista's poor sales.
>>
>> Ballmer admitted to financial analysts that the predictions for Vista
>> had proved 'overly optimistic' and he blamed the pirates in China,
>> India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets.
>>
>> He said his final solution would be to increase the intensity Windows
>> Genuine Advantage as part of an effort to squeeze more revenue from
>> developing nations.
>>
>> Ballmer believes that one way Microsoft can bump up Windows sales is to
>> tighten the screws on pirates. "Piracy reduction can be a source of
>> Windows revenue growth, and I think we'll make some piracy improvements
>> this year."
>>
>> He said that there was software within Windows Genuine Advantage which
>> could be dialled up by the Vole to make it even more tougher for the
>> pirates to take out.
>>
>> He promised that the Vole would "really ferret through how far we can
>> dial it up, and what that means for customer experience and customer
>> satisfaction".
>>
>> Of course he is ignoring the fact that a lot of people are not buying
>> Vista because it does not offer much more than XP and Windows Genuine
>> Advantage makes their lives a misery. Cranking up WGA might backfire.
>>
>> More here
>> ===
>>
>> /m
>
>

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