San Francisco - Shares of Microsoft led a sharp selloff of technology shares Wednesday after the world's leading software maker said it was postponing the release of its next-generation Windows operating system until after the 2006 holiday season.
The delay could seriously damage sales of computers in the US over the Christmas period, in which manufacturers like Dell and Hewlett Packard typically sell some 30 per cent of their annual consumer totals.
Gartner analyst Rob Smulder told Bloomberg News that the shortfall in sales could surpass 4 billion dollars.
Microsoft said it will still introduce the corporate version of Windows Vista in November, but that it was forced to delay the consumer versions as it sought to balance security needs with ease of use.
Vista is the first major update since Windows XP was introduced five years ago. Microsoft has already delayed the launch several times and was forced to cancel key updates to the programme in order to schedule its introduction by the end of 2006.
The news sent shares of Microsoft down some 70 cents, or almost 3 per cent, to below 27 dollars in morning trading on New York's Nasdaq Stock Market. At the same time, shares of rival Apple, which uses its own operating system, rose more than 1 per cent on expectations that it would gain from Microsoft's stumble.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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