Vista Capable stickers: capable of booting, on a good day
Windows Vista Capable program lawsuit filed over stickers that promised less than they seemed
The market's verdict: +1.4% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
On April 20, 2007 a class action was filed over the Windows Vista Capable program, which put Vista stickers on PCs, notably machines with Intel 915 graphics, that could run the most basic Vista edition but not Aero, the interface all the advertising showed. When the internal emails were unsealed on February 27, 2008, they showed Microsoft had lowered the program's requirements to help Intel keep selling the 915 chipset, and showed Microsoft executives discovering the same confusion as their customers. One wrote to Ballmer that he now got "a Vista Capable machine that can't run the most advertised feature of Vista"; another, Mike Sievert, wrote that the company had "really botched this". The stickers left shelves long before the lawsuit left the docket.
This one is well documented.
They did it more than once
The stickers promised Vista. The launch delivered about sixty percent of it.
Links
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Context
- Wikipedia (wikipedia)
↳ caused by Windows Vista Capable program (2006-2007)
Timeline
- Apr 20, 2007 Announced Microsoft announced it.
- Feb 27, 2008 Backlash Internal "really botched this" emails unsealed in court.