After Microsoft announced on May 3 that it will drop its .6 billion bid to acquire Yahoo, many — including experts at Wharton — declared the decision to be a smart move. Microsoft, they say, has more pressing issues, including the need to make its flagship operating system Vista more popular among customers as it competes for attention against its predecessor, Windows XP, and rivals such as Apple’s OS X.

Nearly 16 months after Microsoft launched Vista, the company is still trying to convince some consumers of the operating system’s merit. Vista “is a disappointment,” says Shawndra Hill , operations and information management professor at Wharton and a Vista customer. “It’s too complicated. We had Windows XP and were using it fine. Then Microsoft decided to provide us with something new. But there wasn’t anything really new” about it.

Legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach says Microsoft faced multiple challenges with Vista.…