Yahoo! Messenger for Vista version is no longer available

[Fanatic]

As of October 24, Yahoo! Messenger for Vista will no longer be available for download from the Yahoo! Messenger website. Yahoo! has discontinued stand-alone releases of the Yahoo! Messenger for Vista application in order to focus on delivering one Windows experience that is optimized for all Windows users.

According to the Yahoo! Messenger blog:

"This decision will help us increase efficiencies on our team and deliver one consistent, full-featured product for all of our Windows users. Our application was based on the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) platform which we will continue to experiment with and invest in. The knowledge we gathered from developing Yahoo! Messenger for Vista will also help us improve future versions of our Windows software."

"We realize many of you have been with us from the first launch of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista and we want to thank you for trying it and providing great feedback with each new release.

"If you’re using Yahoo! Messenger for Vista, you can continue to use it however we will not add any more features or provide product support. To enjoy full Yahoo! Messenger functionality including photo sharing, webcam and chat rooms, we recommend downloading and installing the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0, which also works on Windows Vista: Download - Yahoo! Messenger 9.0"

[slimr]

I really liked the vista version. but why exactly did they discontinue it

[Fanatic]

I suspect they discontinued development for a number of reasons, including: 1) Low adoption rate for Vista. Most people chose not to upgrade from XP to Vista, and some are just waiting for Windows 7; 2) Yahoo! Messenger for Vista was buggy; 3) Yahoo! isn't doing to well financially, and needed to trim costs.

Probably a combination of all three led to the decision.

[VvWolverinevV]

Also, Windows 7 (the successor to Vista) is scheduled to be released in mid 2009. The pre-beta is already out. I wonder if that had any impact on the decision.

IMO, it is a good move to abandon YM for Vista. Its betas were extremely premature, and the resources are much better spent improving the main YM.