Industry news

Analyst urges Microsoft to make changes to Vista

Microsoft needs to make radical changes to its operating system before it collapses, an industry analyst has said.

Gartner has warned that the Windows operating system needs to react as it faces serious competition.

The analyst credited the fact the software giant has not previously responded to the market as a reason for the urgency.

Speaking at a conference in Las Vegas, Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald told their audience that Microsoft's situation was "untenable" and the company was overburdened by almost two years of legacy code.

They added that most users did not understand the benefits of Windows Vista, or at least did not see it being worth the cost of migrating to it.

"Apple introduced its iPhone running OS X, but Microsoft requires a different product on handhelds because Windows Vista is too large, which makes application development, support, and the user experience all more difficult," the experts added.

Meanwhile, last week the BBC reported that Microsoft was considering making a joint bid for Yahoo! with News Corp, while the search engine was reported to be discussing merging with AOL to avoid the move.