It's a pretty tough job: it's hard to do an Apple, which is a ‘shock and awe' thing. It's hard to get people to pay attention to anything. There is so much going on. Their main job is to get noticed [that] something is coming out, and let people get their hands on it. A lot of Vista is deep stuff - like the audio, and you need to experience that to know it's better than XP.
It's just going to be really hard. It’s been talked about for three or four years now and people are bored of talking about it. I worked there, and I’m bored of talking about it! That will be the challenge – how do you get excitement? People know what it is. Getting people to pay attention will be expensive. Look back at [the launch of] Windows 95 – they were hanging flags from the Empire State Building!
Also: Check out Scoble's post on this situation, and Wag Ed's Frank Shaw 's comments.