Vista is barely starting to take hold in the marketplace, yet the loose lips in Redmond are once again busily quivering in time with their wagging tongues about the next generation operating system code named Windows 7.
According to reports on CNet and Seattlepi.com , among others, Windows 7 is due in 2010. However, the way Vista development went, who can tell?
Anyway, aside from the fact that we now know there is a new operating system under development, the reports about what is circulating inside Microsoft say exactly nothing about the new operating system itself that could not already be used to describe Vista. Versions for business and consumers, 64-bit and 32-bit versions all get a tick - would we expect anything else?
What this is all about is Microsoft affirming that, Internet or not, operating systems are not going to go away and, for the foreseeable future Windows will be the company’s biggest money spinner. No new operating system for five years and sales and earnings of Microsoft’s client business stagnate to single digit percentage growth. Half a year of Vista and earnings growth shoots up to 12.7% for fiscal year 2007.
According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, soon we will see the Windows installed base pass 1 billion. So far 60 million copies of Vista have been shipped. That’s a lot of prospective Vista upgrades to come before Windows 7 is released. Not all will upgrade to a new Vista box but a heck of a lot will.
With Google and Apple growing like forest fires, Microsoft may not be the darling of the market anymore. However, unless something cataclysimic happens, it’s to deny that the software giant will continue to grow strongly and, armed with a stable of new generation software, is set for a pretty good ride over the next three years.
Then in 2010 it hopes to be able to do it all over again with Windows 7. Will it be able to? Unless 1 billion or so Windows computers become obsolete or someone comes up with a plug and play killer app that can migrate Windows users to Linux, then probably.