Posted on Tuesday, April 08 2008 @ 21:18 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
There was some speculation earlier this week that Microsoft would unveil the next version of Windows as soon as 2009 but the firm
today said that Windows 7 won't be released until January 2010:
"We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista consumer" general availability, a Microsoft spokesman said in an e-mail Friday to InformationWeek.
Windows Vista was released to consumers in late January 2007. That means Windows 7 would not be released until January 2010, according to Microsoft's statement.
Speaking at a seminar on corporate philanthropy last week in Miami, Gates said his company might ship a new version of its Windows operating system as soon as 2009.
The news agency Reuters quoted Gates as saying that Windows 7 may be released "sometime in the next year or so." That would put the software ahead of the three-year cycle that Microsoft normally works on for OS releases.
Microsoft said Gates may have been referring to trial versions of Windows 7. "As is standard with the release of a new product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain tester feedback," the spokesman said.
