BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Microsoft Corp's Windows Vista, set to be available to consumers Tuesday, will register a seismic impact on the company's bottom line and underscore its future vision of computing, the company said Sunday.

    The Windows Vista operating system, five years in the making, is Microsoft's last major software product.

    "Vista is the biggest thing for us in years," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said, "it is at the core of everything we do."

    Vista is the hub of Microsoft's unfolding "connected experiences" strategy, a treatise on how consumer-electronics gadgets -- be they TVs, game consoles or music players -- connect and their content is delivered to PCs and cellphones, according to the company.

    Windows operating system is the software giant's most profitable product line. But it is also among its oldest: it has never been overhauled in years. If Microsoft is to preserve its high-tech golden geese, it must persuade the hundreds of millions of current Windows users worldwide to switch, software analysts said.

    "Not only is the company's reputation staked on this high-profile event, but its profitability, as well," said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. "Despite all the new and growing product lines, nothing can replace Windows and Office yet, and maybe ever, in the profit department."

    (Agencies)