Patience Running Out for Microsoft

As the quarter ended, investors focused on the prognosis for Vista, the next version of Microsoft's flagship Windows operating system.

Worries over Vista were eclipsed, at least temporarily, by the focus on earnings. But nothing said by Microsoft during the call indicated that the product would not ship on time.

Earlier this year, Microsoft said it wouldn't quite make the end-of-year deadline it set for itself to launch Vista. Instead, it scheduled a staged rollout, with business-oriented versions of the operating systems going to market late this year, while consumer versions will appear in early 2007.