Microsoft knew of Vista glitch
2008-03-02 15:53
San Francisco - Microsoft allowed the fudging of technical requirements advertised for its Vista operating system software prior to its release in order to help partner Intel, according to internal emails disclosed this week as part of a class action lawsuit.
Vista is the latest iteration of Microsoft's dominant Windows PC software, one of two core businesses for the software giant. But class action plaintiffs claim in a suit filed in US District Court in Seattle last year that the company falsely advertised that PCs with lower technical requirements could adequately run Vista, causing technical glitches.
Help Intel meet targets
In emails disclosed in court filings earlier this week, Microsoft executives lay the blame on a need to advertise PCs with Intel 915 graphics chips as capable of handling certain graphics features, in order to help Intel meet expectations for its quarterly earnings.
"In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with 915 graphics embedded," Microsoft general manager John Kalkman wrote in a Feb. 2007 email, shortly after Vista's release to consumers.
"On suggestions for corrections to ease the customer pain going forward... there really is nothing we can do in the short term."
Mike Nash, a Microsoft corporate vice president for Windows product management, wrote in a February 2007 email that, "I personally got burned by the Intel 915 chipset issue on a laptop that I personally [bought]."
"I know that I chose my laptop...because it had the Vista logo," Nash wrote.
A Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that the 915 chipset was included in the Vista marketing program only after it had been tested successfully on early versions of the software.
Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy said on Friday that, "John Kalkman has zero visibility into Intel's financial results related to chip sets, motherboards or any other products... he is not qualified to comment on our quarterly forecasts."
Brisk sales
Microsoft's delay in releasing Vista, a flagship product, was a blow for the company. But sales of Vista licenses since its January 2007 release have been brisk, despite widespread technical criticisms.
In the class action suit, filed in March 2007, plaintiffs claim they "paid for Vista capability but did not receive it." Plaintiffs claim they were misled by stickers placed on certain PCs in stores during 2006, advertising them as "Vista Capable."