Ballmer admits Vista not selling as expected

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has pledged that the next version of Windows won't take as long to develop as Vista, which he concedes is not selling according to expectations.

Speaking in a conference call as reported by ARN News, Ballmer said, "We won't go five years again, I promise, between big Windows releases."

He admitted that sales forecasts for Vista were "overly optimistic", but said that Microsoft plans to boost revenues by introducing stronger anti-piracy measures.

"Piracy reduction can be a source of Windows revenue growth, and I think we'll make some piracy improvements this year," Ballmer observed.

"We have new technologies built into Windows Vista, something we call Windows Genuine Advantage [that] we've really dialled up in capabilities with the Vista release.

"I do think that will bring some revenue growth. We will have strong growth in the Windows business in emerging markets: China, India, Brazil, Russia and many others. Those markets [have] very high piracy."

Some critics have claimed the anti-piracy features of Vista are excessive and can cause serious problems for users, but Ballmer said they could be extended even further if necessary.

"We [will] really ferret through how far we can dial it up, and what that means for customer experience and customer satisfaction," he stated.