Aidan MalleyHowever well customers are taking to Windows Vista, its replacement is only in the earliest stages of development, according to a statement from Microsoft.
"We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and expect it will take approximately 3 years to develop," said the spokesperson. "The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release."
Microsoft also dismissed notions that it was stepping up the development process for the software. The company was "confident" that businesses appreciated Vista and justified any initial hesitation in the segment by arguing that the OS was only just entering mainstream adoption and that it was typical for only a small number of companies to become early adopters of a new Windows release.
The company sold approximately 100 million copies of Vista during 2007 but did so in a much larger market that saw sales of 269 million PCs, according to research firm IDC, indicating that most PCs shipped with Windows XP or other versions of the software released before Vista.
The estimate may place Windows 7 as far away as 2011, or four years after Vista's January 2007 launch, though Microsoft is not known to have indicated whether the three-year timeframe began this year or just after the completion of Vista.
If begun in 2008, Windows 7's development time will be only slightly shorter than for its predecessor. Vista was originally intended for a 2004 introduction but encountered major code rewrites and other delays that pushed it back three years.
By contrast, Apple released Mac OS X Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger in between Microsoft's non-server OS releases and unveiled Leopard in October of last year. The next major release of Mac OS X is due to arrive within 12 to 18 months of the Leopard, according to statements by company chief executive Steve Jobs. That would put its release sometime between late this year and the spring of 2009.
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"We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and expect it will take approximately 3 years to develop," said the spokesperson.
Thats a typo he said 5-10 years I believe...
This is good news for Apple. Pick Vista or Leopard for the next few years...what's your choice?
I mean honestly, who really believed that the airheads at Redmond, Washington were going to actually deliver an OS that was less bloated and offering a more advanced computing experience than Vista by 2009? \ I knew that was crap when I first heard of this several months ago. If Microsoft is saying 2011, expect 2013 or 20014 but no later than 2099.
This is good news for Apple. Pick Vista or Leopard for the next few years...what's your choice?
Better, pick Vista or large-feline-to-be-named-at-a-later-date for the next few years after that.
I don't see MS having this ready before 2013. With ding such massive rewrites instead of small upgrades to code as technology changes they will probably have to do another major rewrite like they did to Vista just to keep up. That is assuming that MS has not learned from their mistakes and will be repeating their mistakes over again.
The next major release of Mac OS X is due to arrive within 12 to 18 months of the Leopard, according to statements by company chief executive Steve Jobs. That would put its release sometime between late this year and the spring of 2009.
So by arrive, AppleInsider means Steve will demo it and the first developer alpha/beta will be ready.