"If there's another delay, I think the PC industry en masse would descend on Redmond like a lynch mob," said META Group analyst Steve Kleynhans. "It needs to hit the streets before the end of 2006 for the holiday season, and companies already have that in their sales projections."
In the last few weeks, the tech industry has been buzzing with speculation that Microsoft's next OS release, Longhorn, will not be ready for its planned 2006 unveiling.
If the OS is put off until 2007, some competitors could win more profits, but many analysts say that software and hardware partners will face the most serious challenges and could end up losing more than they anticipated.
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