Service Packs can be good and bad for Microsoft. On one hand, they fix vulnerabilities, upgrade the usefulness, efficiency or functionality of components, and sometimes add new features. On the other hand, consumers, and especially corporations, will often wait until an SP is released before upgrading to the new product, assuming that the first generation of a release isn't quite ready for prime time.
Some have even wondered if Microsoft's various Update services have made service packs obsolete. Some of that speculation has been spurred by the fact that Microsoft has been very tight-lipped about an SP1 for Windows Vista, leading some to wonder if service packs would be foregone totally.
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