Survey: Vista Can Wait

Consumers are overwhelmingly aware of Microsoft's(MSFT) new Vista operating system. But only a small group of them intend to upgrade to it anytime soon, a new survey has found.

According to a poll by Harris Interactive, only 12% of respondents said they planned to upgrade to Vista within the next 12 months. And only one in five said Vista would cause them to buy a PC sooner than they had planned.

The survey results represent a worrisome trend for Microsoft, as well as PC makers like Dell(DELL) and Hewlett-Packard(HPQ), which are hoping that Vista will entice consumers to upgrade to new, more powerful machines.

Microsoft is reportedly spending hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing for Vista, which it released at the end of January.

The software giant has sent out mixed messages about the reception of its new operating system. In February, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cautioned Wall Street that expectations about Vista sales were "overly aggressive."

Last month, however, Microsoft boasted that Vista sales in the first month exceeded 20 million licenses, more than double the initial sales pace logged by the previous operating system, Windows XP.

The Harris Interactive survey, which polled 2,223 U.S. online adults between March 6 and March 14, found that Microsoft's marketing efforts have been noticed. According to the poll 87% of respondents said they were aware of the new operating system. An earlier poll by Harris before Vista's release pegged the awareness level at only 47%.