MS heeds calls for W98 delay

Microsoft?s shipping date for Windows 98 has moved three months closer to 1999 after the software giant delayed the release of the operating system upgrade under pressure from worried customers and channel partners.

The need to provide a simultaneous upgrade path for users of both Windows 3.x and Windows 95 is behind the decision to put back the planned first quarter 1998 release into the second quarter.

Microsoft had originally planned to release a Windows 95 upgrade in the first quarter, followed by a 3.x upgrade in the summer or the autumn.

But this plan proved to be unacceptable to customers and channel partners, forcing the company to delay the release until all versions could be shipped at the same time.

Phil Holden, Microsoft Windows product manager, said: ?Feedback from our channel and from our corporate customers indicated that they wanted only one release with migration support for both operating systems in it.

?There will now be one upgrade for all Windows users and that will take more time. The result is that we will have to do additional testing, and that will move us to the second quarter.?

Windows 98 is in second beta release with 15,000 test users. The immediate effect of the delay announcement will be the postponement of the third beta, which was due at the end of the third quarter.

Wall Street did not respond well to the announcement, which knocked $7 off Microsoft?s share price last week.