There are more than a few who remain unconvinced, but Lundin, general manager of Windows Client Business Group, has more pressing issues to keep him up at night. "I'm just worried about making sure this product is received well in the market and being implemented professionally," he says. "But I am absolutely confident that it will."
This is easier said than done, given that the Microsoft software is installed in more than 700 million PCs worldwide, juggles at least half a million partners, and aims to hit two million users with Vista this year. "We're not talking about a niche product. There are lots of players who develop niche products for consumers - or journalists," he adds, cheekily. "I'm working with a product that touches 700 million people - isn't that the greatest possible way to touch so many lives in a positive way?"
For those who were too impatient to follow the well-documented saga of Microsoft Vista, here it is in a nutshell. Vista was supposed to launch less than two years after its predecessor, XP, in 2003.
But, in 2004, Microsoft announced that it needed more time. The company then proceeded to go through exhaustive beta testing - accumulating over five million downloads - and three more years of very public delays before the official commercial launch on 30 January this year.
But for a man whose sneeze can affect almost a billion consumers in the world, Lundin possesses the demeanour of a listener, not a corporate villain.
Enthusiastic, if a little too rational, the thickly-accented Swede livens geeky phrases like ‘beta testing' and ‘OEM' with "really cool" and "quite neat". And for a person who needs to please such a varied audience, it's fortunate that the soft-spoken man believes he possesses "humbleness and willingness to learn."
Meanwhile, as the region digests glitzy launch events such as the Vista logo displayed onto the Taj Mahal or aerial photography in Australia, Lundin is more preoccupied with three months from now.
"My job is to make sure we are absolutely successful with the launch of Vista," he says, "and you can't just say that after a glamorous launch day. You can only say that when you follow up on sales and the product's effect on the market, plus perception of the product.
"We've put a lot of sustenance in the campaign - now is the phase where we're actually going to sell and market these products. This takes a different tweak than just creating ‘wow'."
The word ‘wow' pops up in Lundin's discourse more often than any other, which makes sense given that it forms the basis of Vista's brand communications with the tagline, ‘The wow starts now'. Moreover, "there was some underpinning guidance for the Vista launch", Lundin says, "that it should create ‘wow'."
But, given all the holes that needed to be plugged in order to launch Vista, perhaps some lapses in marketing ingenuity are more forgivable. After all, when it comes to branding, the leader of the pack gives nearly free rein to partners and individual markets.
"We believe in a model that is highly empowered in individual countries, so that they can reach their consumers in the way that makes sense for that country," Lundin says. For example, Microsoft goes heavy online in Korea, and taps Bollywood in India. "Partners are so important to us too," he adds. "We've gone through 18 months of preparations, scrubbing dry runs - I've just been the spider in this."
But even after eight years with the company, ultimately Lundin is proudest of what has yet to be achieved: connecting the next billion users. "We have a huge potential to help people get access to another world - a better world - through computing. Like children in India and people in Indonesia - not that many have a PC. So, working to find form factors and business models for these people is a very exciting part of the job too."
No simple task, to be sure, but if accomplished it truly would be ‘wow'.
