A Wall Street analyst has said that Microsoft stands to lose around $395 million in revenues for 2009 because of the poor adoption of its Vista operating system by corporations.

Charles Di Bona, of Sanford C. Bernstein Group, based his statement on the results of a survey conducted by Bernstein of some 372 information technology professionals in May. Respondents expected that only 26% of corporate PCs will be running Vista by 2011. Those figures are well down on survey results last year where it was expected that 68% of PCs would be running Vista..

The survey also showed that the primary reason why companies are reluctant to adopt Vista is its memory and processor requirements. Two things which are not an issue with Windows XP.

During an interview, Di Bona also said that the IT community does find any compelling reason migrating to Vista; instead they have become negative about it.

"It seems like the IT community has turned tepid to negative," said Di Bona.

In a more positive note, Di Bona predicted a better earnings projection of around $429 for Microsoft sometime in 2010 when Windows 7 is expected to be released.

Other industry analysts are also pinning their hopes for Microsoft on intensifying anticipation for Windows 7.  Nonetheless, the analysts advised Microsoft to beef up their Vista campaign while still promoting the forthcoming Windows 7.

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