Intel Decides To Partially Adopt Windows Vista
After a long history of working alongside business partner Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., the worlds biggest chipmaker said it will be slow to adopt Windows Vista for all of its employees.
"We’re in a refresh cycle now and there are a number of factors considered before we select software," said an Intel spokesman.
Long known as “Wintell,” the two corporations have been working together since the conception of the personal computer, when Microsoft began using Intel’s microprocessors to run its Windows Operating system. Together, Microsoft and Intel control about 80 percent or more of the global personal computing industry.
The Intel spokesman said the chipmaker would be testing and deploying Windows Vista only in certain departments with no concrete plans to implement its use across the board.
Vista has been marked by its slow adoption among traditional Windows users, especially among large corporate customers who find the transition to the newest operating system to be unnecessary.
"There’s been very little enterprise-wide uptake of Vista," said Endpoint Technologies Associates analyst Roger Kay.
"They look at Vista and say, ‘We’re not going to throw out a bunch of hardware and software.’"
Many Windows users say they are satisfied with Windows XP, Microsoft’s previous operating system, and say they will wait until the corporation decides to release its OS, code-named Windows 7. Windows 7 has a targeted release date of 2010.
The adoption of Vista would require companies to make costly upgrades of computer hardware since the OS requires larger amounts of computer memory to run smoothly.
Microsoft, however, claims that many millions of copies of Vista are in use, with more than 140 million copies installed on PCs around the globe.
"The consumer market is moving along apace," Kay said. "And in the small- and medium-business market you’re seeing decent adoption of Vista."
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel has about 80,000 employees across the globe and maintains a network of about a dozen multibillion dollar plants that churn out its processors that are the electronic brains of PCs.
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