A ho-hum big deal.

Implications: When a giant like Microsoft releases it’s biggest new product in over 5 years, you can’t deny it’s big. And, while many of the improvements are similar to what’s been available for some time on the Mac OS, it’s evolutionary, not revolutionary, but big. Vista to Mac ratio is 20:1. 

Analysis: Many, many consumers have heard of Vista, and many have delayed their PC purchase in anticipation of the release. Although promotions by retailers for “vista ready” and “free upgrades” have been running over the past several months, read anything and it’s very clear that this is not something you want to install yourself. But, although many of heard of Vista, and many are waiting for it, it’s interesting that very few understand exactly why they should buy it.

Over the next 6 moths, Microsoft is expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to market Vista telling consumers just that, and whether ultimately articulated by Microsoft or it’s many customers, over time the improvements will matter.

So, where’s the upside? A few obvious areas immediately:

•    An initial boost in PC sales to the benefit of many PC manufacturers and retailers. Many consumers have delayed their PC purchase in anticipation of Vista, and will be lining up for it’s release in a couple days.

•    In memory and more sophisticated graphics cards required for Vista to run at it’s best – without it you will get a painfully slow, and poor, user experience.

Over time the biggest upside may be in devices that will now be able to access PC based digital content – music, photos and videos - off Vista, but away from the PC, ultimately making it easier to use and enjoy all the stored digital content that has been steadily growing on consumer PCs over the past several years. For instance:

•    Digital photos: Connect digital picture frames wirelessly to your PC, via your home network, and display all those digital photos you have stored that nobody ever sees.  Microsoft promises that you’ll need to just turn on the frame and the PC will easily recognize it allowing you to easily display your digital photos in frames scattered around the house.

•    Distributed audio. Previously limited by copy protection that prevents music purchased on-line from being played on multiple devices, Vista’s Window Media 11 will let you stream copy protected content throughout the house, making products like the Sonos digital music system and others like it far more compelling and easy to use for more people.

•    Networking gear. Now that it’s going to be easier to move content stored on your PC to other devices in your home, the benefits of having a wireless home network will increase, and more consumers will be installing for the first time or upgrading and expanding their current network.

•    Services. To help those brave souls that decide to install Vista upgrade themselves, and to help consumers make everything work together.  Vista promises to make for easier networking and distribution of content off your PC, but easier is absolutely relative in this case. Service providers, like the Geek Squad, are going to be busy.

Bottom line, for something that has been as built up for as long as Vista has, it’s surprisingly unclear exactly what the upside market potential is for retailers and related products, but it will most certainly build over 2007 and well into 2008.