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Microsoft e-mails reveal Intel pressure over Vista
Posted by Tom Krazit | 26 comments
We updated this blog at 6:25 p.m. PST after Microsoft released a statement.
As far back as 2005, Microsoft executives knew that confusing hardware
requirements for the Windows Vista Capable program might get them in
trouble. But they did it anyway--over the objection of PC makers--at the
behest of Intel, according to e-mails released as part of a class-action
lawsuit pending against Microsoft.
In early 2006, Intel's Renee James, vice president and general manager of
Intel's software and solutions group, was able to prevail on Microsoft's
Will Poole to change the proposed requirements for Microsoft's proposed
"Vista Ready" marketing program to include an older integrated graphics
chipset that couldn't run Vista's Aero interface. At the time, Intel was
worried that it wouldn't be able to ship the more advanced 945 chispet,
which was capable of running Aero, in step with Microsoft's proposed
schedule for the introduction of the marketing upgrade plan.
This led to the creation of the "Vista Capable" logo, which is the reason
Microsoft is now in court, facing a class-action lawsuit on the part of PC
owners who bought so-called Vista Capable machines in late 2006 only to find
those machines could only run Vista Basic, which doesn't feature the Aero
interface. The potential for confusion was well-understood both outside the
company, as noted here in this CNET News.com story from March 2006, and
within the company, as multiple e-mail threads reveal.
A treasure trove of e-mails has been released as part of that case, and the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop has spotlighted a number of e-mails
that call into question whether Microsoft was acting, at least in part, on
Intel's behalf when it set the requirements for the Vista Capable marketing
program. Several pages of e-mails were redacted by the court. All e-mails
quoted in this report were taken verbatim, typos and all, from a PDF file
put together by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a blog posted by Bishop
yesterday.
"In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly
earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics
embedded," Microsoft's John Kalkman wrote in a February 2007 e-mail to Scott
Di Valerio, who at the time managed Microsoft's relationships with the PC
companies and recently took a job with Lenovo. The change took place in
January 2006, and was formally rolled out by Poole, currently corporate vice
president of Microsoft's unlimited potential group, without the knowledge of
Jim Allchin, the now-departed Microsoft executive who was supposed to be in
charge of Vista's development
Intel declined to comment on specific e-mails until it had a chance to
review them. But in response to the Kalkman e-mail, read to a Intel
representative, the company said, "We do not know who John Kalkman is. We do
know that he is not qualified to know anything about Intel's internal
financials or forecasts related to chipsets, motherboard or any other
products. He would have no visibility into our financial needs in any given
quarter."
The planning for the Vista Capable program started long before it was
publicly announced in May 2006, a few months after the final delay in
Vista's ship date was announced. The idea was to mimic what Microsoft did
with Windows XP, to assure customers buying PCs sold within a few months of
the launch date that their hardware could run the new operating system when
it was formally released. This helps PC makers avoid a swoon in demand in
the weeks and months prior to the launch of a new operating system.
Microsoft knew that Vista's Aero interface would put a significant strain on
the hardware used in those PCs, and so in 2005 it started putting
requirements together for the Vista Ready program using Intel's 945 chipset
as the baseline chipset needed for designation as "Vista Ready."
Eric Charbonneau, an unidentified Microsoft executive, told his direct
reports in August 2005 in an e-mail that the older 915 chipset wouldn't cut
it. "Any OEM who plans to ship an Intel 915 chipset system (using UMA,
without separate discrete graphics hardware) for Summer 2006 needs to know
that: 1. Their systems will not be eligible for the Windows Vista Ready
designation..." Simply put, the 915 chipset couldn't support the Windows
Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM), and that capability was a requirement at
the time for being able to slap a "Vista Ready" sticker on a PC.
However, at some point between that e-mail and January 2006, Microsoft
changed its stance on the 915 chipset. The 945 chipset was Intel's
top-of-the-line integrated graphics chipset when it was introduced in May
2005, but it still sold lots of lower-end 915 chipsets in both desktops and
notebooks. Intel didn't launch the notebook version of the 945 chipset until
January 2006, and was apparently concerned that it would be unable to get
enough 945 systems into the market by the middle of 2006, the (at the time)
launch expectation for the Vista Ready program.
With notebooks a far-faster growing segment of the PC market than desktops,
Intel apparently felt that if only 945 chipsets were deemed Vista Ready,
that demand for systems with 915 chipsets--still a significant mix of its
products--would fall off the face of the earth. And also, that it would be
unable to produce enough 945 chipsets to meet its committments to PC
makers--orders that might otherwise go to Advanced Micro Devices.
"In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly
earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics
embedded."
--John Kalkman, MicrosoftIn January 2006, Poole sent an e-mail to several
Microsoft executives informing them that the plan had changed, and that
Intel approved. "I went over the new plan with Renee tonight. Not
surprisingly, she is pleased with the outcome. I told her we wanted to
communicate to OEMs and retail first, and then they can cascade their own
communication. They are losing orders every day, so we need to get a simple
communication out ASAP."
In February 2006, one month after Will Poole informed the Vista team of the
decision, Microsoft's Will Johnson wrote an e-mail laying out some more of
the specifics.
"We have removed the WDDM requirement for Vista Capable machines, the modern
CPU and 512 RAM requirements remain intact, but the specific component that
enables the graphical elements of Windows Vista (re: aeroglass) has been
removed. This was based on a huge concern raised by Intel regarding 945
chipset production supply and the fact that we wanted to get as many PCs as
possible logo'd by the 4/1 US retail REV date. The push to retail should be
that while this opens up a wider band of machines to being Vista Capable
retailers should be very aggressive in communicating to their OEMs (and thus
Intel) to maximize production of 945 chipset equipped machines going
forward."
According to e-mails exchanged, many inside Microsoft were appalled at the
decision to let Intel's supply concerns dictate its marketing policies. Now
Microsoft had to go out and create a two-tiered program promoting both
"Vista Capable" machines and "Vista Premium Ready" machines.
A Vista Capable sticker would simply mean the PC could run Vista Basic,
allowing PC makers to promote their PCs as "Vista" PCs while glossing over
the fact that the minimum hardware requirements for that label couldn't
really handle the improved graphics that were one of the major reasons to
upgrade to Vista. This confusion was exactly what Microsoft and its PC
partners hoped to avoid when they were first drawing up the requirements in
the first place, and several e-mails show those concerns were shared widely
prior to, and following, Poole's decision.
Hewlett-Packard was particularly incensed, since it had decided to adopt
Intel's 945 chipset more aggressively, believing it was the only chipset
that would support the Vista Ready program.
Microsoft's Mark Croft wrote in response to Poole's e-mail that, "We need
good messaging for the elimination of WDDM in Capable, as we have had this
as a requirement since inception over 18 months ago."
But perhaps the most surprised executive inside Microsoft at the move was
Allchin, the head of the Vista development team.
"We really botched this," he wrote in a thread responded to Poole's e-mail.
"I was not involved in the decision making process and I will support it
because I trust you thinking behind the logic. BUT, you have to do a better
job with customers that what was shown here. This was especially true
because you put me out on a limb making a commitment. This is not ok."
Later, in a private e-mail, Mike Ybarra of Microsoft pleaded with Alchin to
step in and reverse the decision. "Jim, I am passionate about this and
believe this decision is a mistake," he wrote. "We are caving to Intel. We
worked hard the last 18 months to drive the UI experience and we are giving
this up."
Allchin appeared to agree in his response, but seemed resigned to fate.
"It might be a mistake. I wasn't involved and it is hard for me to step in
now and reverse everything again," he wrote to Ybarra. "We might be able to
thread the needle here if we make 'capable' just related to 'old' type
hardware."
And so, confusion began, just as Microsoft employees and partners predicted
it would. Some Microsoft marketing units started saying that the even older
865 chipset would now qualify for the Vista logo program, which was
squashed. But it was easy to see where the confusion stemmed once the
requirement for WDDM was dropped, as essentially anything relatively modern
that could easily run Windows XP would be capable of running Vista Basic.
Anantha Kancheria wrote to Rajesh Srinivasan as part of a discussion in
March 2006 around the 865 confusion, and employed a little gallows humor.
"Based on the objective criteria that exist today for capable even a piece
of junk would qualify.
So based on that yes 865 would qualify. For the
sake of Vista customers, it would be a complete tragedy if we allowed it. I
don't know how to help you prevent it."
The 865 was eventually scrubbed from the program, but the 915 was allowed to
remain. And so, PCs with the 915 chipset were sold as Windows Vista Capable,
while others sold with the 945 chipset or better were labeled Vista Premium
Ready. As predicted, confusion ensued, and even Microsoft executives and
directors were snared.
Steve Sinofsky, the former head of Microsoft office development and current
head of Windows and Windows Live development, wrote an e-mail to Microsoft's
Brad Goldberg in July 2006 asking about a Dell Latitude he purchased that he
thought was labeled as "Vista Ready," but in reality didn't have enough
graphics hardware to run Vista.
Goldberg, then vice president of Windows product management, explained,
"Some PCs that are windows vista capable will run aero and some will not. In
the interim we've created a marketing designation that allows OEMs to market
PCs as "premium ready." every pc that is premium ready will run aero."
Goldberg continued, "for holiday oems will be heavily pushing premium ready
machines but because Intel was late with their integrated chipset the
majority of the machines on the market today are windows vista capable but
not premium ready. originally we wanted to set the capable bar around aero
but there are a bunch of reasons why we had to back off...a bit messy and a
long story that I'm happy to walk you through if helpful." Goldberg has
since been reassigned.
In January 2007, Jon Shirley, a former Microsoft COO and current member of
the board of directors, wrote CEO Steve Ballmer an e-mail complaining about
driver support for some peripherals he wanted to use with his Vista PC.
Ballmer forwarded the e-mail to Sinofsky, asking for input on whether
Microsoft should be doing anything differently.
Sinofsky launched into a post-mortem on Vista itself, with this graph
pertaining to Intel.
"Intel has the biggest challenge. Their "945" chipset which is the baseline
Vista set "barely" works right now and is very broadly used. The "915"
chipset which is not Aero capable is in a huge number of laptops and was
tagged as "Vista Capable" but not Vista Premium. I don't know if this was a
good call. But these function will never be great. Even the 945 set has new
builds of drivers coming out consistently but hopes are on the next chipset
rather than this one."
Ballmer's response? "Righto thanks."
Microsoft is now defending itself against claims the Vista Capable program
was misleading and unfair, all thanks to a decision to allow Intel to sell
older chipsets that couldn't run Vista's Aero interface--really one of the
main reasons to upgrade--with the word "Vista" attached. As the e-mails
show, many within the company knew they were heading down this path when
they embarked on a two-tier logo program, but the need to keep Intel
happy--over the objection of the world's largest PC maker--won out in the
end.
UPDATED: 6:25 p.m., PST - Microsoft issued the following statement after
this blog was posted: "We included the 915 chipset as part of the Windows
Vista Capable program based on successful testing of beta versions of
Windows Vista on the chipset and the broad availability of the chipset in
the market. Computers equipped with this chipset were and are capable of
being upgraded to Windows Vista Home Basic. Microsoft authorized the use of
the Premium Ready designation on PCs that could support premium features of
Windows Vista."
Microsoft e-mails reveal Intel pressure over Vista
Posted by Tom Krazit | 26 comments
We updated this blog at 6:25 p.m. PST after Microsoft released a statement.
As far back as 2005, Microsoft executives knew that confusing hardware
requirements for the Windows Vista Capable program might get them in
trouble. But they did it anyway--over the objection of PC makers--at the
behest of Intel, according to e-mails released as part of a class-action
lawsuit pending against Microsoft.
In early 2006, Intel's Renee James, vice president and general manager of
Intel's software and solutions group, was able to prevail on Microsoft's
Will Poole to change the proposed requirements for Microsoft's proposed
"Vista Ready" marketing program to include an older integrated graphics
chipset that couldn't run Vista's Aero interface. At the time, Intel was
worried that it wouldn't be able to ship the more advanced 945 chispet,
which was capable of running Aero, in step with Microsoft's proposed
schedule for the introduction of the marketing upgrade plan.
This led to the creation of the "Vista Capable" logo, which is the reason
Microsoft is now in court, facing a class-action lawsuit on the part of PC
owners who bought so-called Vista Capable machines in late 2006 only to find
those machines could only run Vista Basic, which doesn't feature the Aero
interface. The potential for confusion was well-understood both outside the
company, as noted here in this CNET News.com story from March 2006, and
within the company, as multiple e-mail threads reveal.
A treasure trove of e-mails has been released as part of that case, and the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop has spotlighted a number of e-mails
that call into question whether Microsoft was acting, at least in part, on
Intel's behalf when it set the requirements for the Vista Capable marketing
program. Several pages of e-mails were redacted by the court. All e-mails
quoted in this report were taken verbatim, typos and all, from a PDF file
put together by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a blog posted by Bishop
yesterday.
"In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly
earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics
embedded," Microsoft's John Kalkman wrote in a February 2007 e-mail to Scott
Di Valerio, who at the time managed Microsoft's relationships with the PC
companies and recently took a job with Lenovo. The change took place in
January 2006, and was formally rolled out by Poole, currently corporate vice
president of Microsoft's unlimited potential group, without the knowledge of
Jim Allchin, the now-departed Microsoft executive who was supposed to be in
charge of Vista's development
Intel declined to comment on specific e-mails until it had a chance to
review them. But in response to the Kalkman e-mail, read to a Intel
representative, the company said, "We do not know who John Kalkman is. We do
know that he is not qualified to know anything about Intel's internal
financials or forecasts related to chipsets, motherboard or any other
products. He would have no visibility into our financial needs in any given
quarter."
The planning for the Vista Capable program started long before it was
publicly announced in May 2006, a few months after the final delay in
Vista's ship date was announced. The idea was to mimic what Microsoft did
with Windows XP, to assure customers buying PCs sold within a few months of
the launch date that their hardware could run the new operating system when
it was formally released. This helps PC makers avoid a swoon in demand in
the weeks and months prior to the launch of a new operating system.
Microsoft knew that Vista's Aero interface would put a significant strain on
the hardware used in those PCs, and so in 2005 it started putting
requirements together for the Vista Ready program using Intel's 945 chipset
as the baseline chipset needed for designation as "Vista Ready."
Eric Charbonneau, an unidentified Microsoft executive, told his direct
reports in August 2005 in an e-mail that the older 915 chipset wouldn't cut
it. "Any OEM who plans to ship an Intel 915 chipset system (using UMA,
without separate discrete graphics hardware) for Summer 2006 needs to know
that: 1. Their systems will not be eligible for the Windows Vista Ready
designation..." Simply put, the 915 chipset couldn't support the Windows
Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM), and that capability was a requirement at
the time for being able to slap a "Vista Ready" sticker on a PC.
However, at some point between that e-mail and January 2006, Microsoft
changed its stance on the 915 chipset. The 945 chipset was Intel's
top-of-the-line integrated graphics chipset when it was introduced in May
2005, but it still sold lots of lower-end 915 chipsets in both desktops and
notebooks. Intel didn't launch the notebook version of the 945 chipset until
January 2006, and was apparently concerned that it would be unable to get
enough 945 systems into the market by the middle of 2006, the (at the time)
launch expectation for the Vista Ready program.
With notebooks a far-faster growing segment of the PC market than desktops,
Intel apparently felt that if only 945 chipsets were deemed Vista Ready,
that demand for systems with 915 chipsets--still a significant mix of its
products--would fall off the face of the earth. And also, that it would be
unable to produce enough 945 chipsets to meet its committments to PC
makers--orders that might otherwise go to Advanced Micro Devices.
"In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly
earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics
embedded."
--John Kalkman, MicrosoftIn January 2006, Poole sent an e-mail to several
Microsoft executives informing them that the plan had changed, and that
Intel approved. "I went over the new plan with Renee tonight. Not
surprisingly, she is pleased with the outcome. I told her we wanted to
communicate to OEMs and retail first, and then they can cascade their own
communication. They are losing orders every day, so we need to get a simple
communication out ASAP."
In February 2006, one month after Will Poole informed the Vista team of the
decision, Microsoft's Will Johnson wrote an e-mail laying out some more of
the specifics.
"We have removed the WDDM requirement for Vista Capable machines, the modern
CPU and 512 RAM requirements remain intact, but the specific component that
enables the graphical elements of Windows Vista (re: aeroglass) has been
removed. This was based on a huge concern raised by Intel regarding 945
chipset production supply and the fact that we wanted to get as many PCs as
possible logo'd by the 4/1 US retail REV date. The push to retail should be
that while this opens up a wider band of machines to being Vista Capable
retailers should be very aggressive in communicating to their OEMs (and thus
Intel) to maximize production of 945 chipset equipped machines going
forward."
According to e-mails exchanged, many inside Microsoft were appalled at the
decision to let Intel's supply concerns dictate its marketing policies. Now
Microsoft had to go out and create a two-tiered program promoting both
"Vista Capable" machines and "Vista Premium Ready" machines.
A Vista Capable sticker would simply mean the PC could run Vista Basic,
allowing PC makers to promote their PCs as "Vista" PCs while glossing over
the fact that the minimum hardware requirements for that label couldn't
really handle the improved graphics that were one of the major reasons to
upgrade to Vista. This confusion was exactly what Microsoft and its PC
partners hoped to avoid when they were first drawing up the requirements in
the first place, and several e-mails show those concerns were shared widely
prior to, and following, Poole's decision.
Hewlett-Packard was particularly incensed, since it had decided to adopt
Intel's 945 chipset more aggressively, believing it was the only chipset
that would support the Vista Ready program.
Microsoft's Mark Croft wrote in response to Poole's e-mail that, "We need
good messaging for the elimination of WDDM in Capable, as we have had this
as a requirement since inception over 18 months ago."
But perhaps the most surprised executive inside Microsoft at the move was
Allchin, the head of the Vista development team.
"We really botched this," he wrote in a thread responded to Poole's e-mail.
"I was not involved in the decision making process and I will support it
because I trust you thinking behind the logic. BUT, you have to do a better
job with customers that what was shown here. This was especially true
because you put me out on a limb making a commitment. This is not ok."
Later, in a private e-mail, Mike Ybarra of Microsoft pleaded with Alchin to
step in and reverse the decision. "Jim, I am passionate about this and
believe this decision is a mistake," he wrote. "We are caving to Intel. We
worked hard the last 18 months to drive the UI experience and we are giving
this up."
Allchin appeared to agree in his response, but seemed resigned to fate.
"It might be a mistake. I wasn't involved and it is hard for me to step in
now and reverse everything again," he wrote to Ybarra. "We might be able to
thread the needle here if we make 'capable' just related to 'old' type
hardware."
And so, confusion began, just as Microsoft employees and partners predicted
it would. Some Microsoft marketing units started saying that the even older
865 chipset would now qualify for the Vista logo program, which was
squashed. But it was easy to see where the confusion stemmed once the
requirement for WDDM was dropped, as essentially anything relatively modern
that could easily run Windows XP would be capable of running Vista Basic.
Anantha Kancheria wrote to Rajesh Srinivasan as part of a discussion in
March 2006 around the 865 confusion, and employed a little gallows humor.
"Based on the objective criteria that exist today for capable even a piece
of junk would qualify.
So based on that yes 865 would qualify. For the sake of Vista customers, it would be a complete tragedy if we allowed it. I
don't know how to help you prevent it."
The 865 was eventually scrubbed from the program, but the 915 was allowed to
remain. And so, PCs with the 915 chipset were sold as Windows Vista Capable,
while others sold with the 945 chipset or better were labeled Vista Premium
Ready. As predicted, confusion ensued, and even Microsoft executives and
directors were snared.
Steve Sinofsky, the former head of Microsoft office development and current
head of Windows and Windows Live development, wrote an e-mail to Microsoft's
Brad Goldberg in July 2006 asking about a Dell Latitude he purchased that he
thought was labeled as "Vista Ready," but in reality didn't have enough
graphics hardware to run Vista.
Goldberg, then vice president of Windows product management, explained,
"Some PCs that are windows vista capable will run aero and some will not. In
the interim we've created a marketing designation that allows OEMs to market
PCs as "premium ready." every pc that is premium ready will run aero."
Goldberg continued, "for holiday oems will be heavily pushing premium ready
machines but because Intel was late with their integrated chipset the
majority of the machines on the market today are windows vista capable but
not premium ready. originally we wanted to set the capable bar around aero
but there are a bunch of reasons why we had to back off...a bit messy and a
long story that I'm happy to walk you through if helpful.
" Goldberg has since been reassigned.
In January 2007, Jon Shirley, a former Microsoft COO and current member of
the board of directors, wrote CEO Steve Ballmer an e-mail complaining about
driver support for some peripherals he wanted to use with his Vista PC.
Ballmer forwarded the e-mail to Sinofsky, asking for input on whether
Microsoft should be doing anything differently.
Sinofsky launched into a post-mortem on Vista itself, with this graph
pertaining to Intel.
"Intel has the biggest challenge. Their "945" chipset which is the baseline
Vista set "barely" works right now and is very broadly used. The "915"
chipset which is not Aero capable is in a huge number of laptops and was
tagged as "Vista Capable" but not Vista Premium. I don't know if this was a
good call. But these function will never be great. Even the 945 set has new
builds of drivers coming out consistently but hopes are on the next chipset
rather than this one."
Ballmer's response? "Righto thanks."
Microsoft is now defending itself against claims the Vista Capable program
was misleading and unfair, all thanks to a decision to allow Intel to sell
older chipsets that couldn't run Vista's Aero interface--really one of the
main reasons to upgrade--with the word "Vista" attached. As the e-mails
show, many within the company knew they were heading down this path when
they embarked on a two-tier logo program, but the need to keep Intel
happy--over the objection of the world's largest PC maker--won out in the
end.
UPDATED: 6:25 p.m., PST - Microsoft issued the following statement after
this blog was posted: "We included the 915 chipset as part of the Windows
Vista Capable program based on successful testing of beta versions of
Windows Vista on the chipset and the broad availability of the chipset in
the market. Computers equipped with this chipset were and are capable of
being upgraded to Windows Vista Home Basic. Microsoft authorized the use of
the Premium Ready designation on PCs that could support premium features of
Windows Vista."