Windows 7 Inches Ahead Amid Leaks on Ship Date Windows 7 Release: It's All in the Timing Stuart J. Johnston
As Microsoft gets nearer to distributing the "release candidate," or RC, for Windows 7, the company on Thursday talked up some of the fixes and other changes it plans to incorporate into its final code.
But it may have other worries in the meantime. The previous day, one of Microsoft's hardware partners lent more credence to an earlier-than-expected debut for the new operating system, revealing to the press that Windows 7 would likely become publicly available in the fall.
In no mood to repeat the constant schedule slide that characterized Windows Vista, Microsoft officials have been reluctant to give any date other than the company line — Windows 7 will be out by the time of Vista's three-year consumer release anniversary on January 30, 2010. Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that Windows 7 will make its appearance far sooner.
In the meantime, there's plenty to be done before the day that Windows 7 actually does ship, such as fixing bugs and adding minor features before it heads to RC status.
"We've been quite busy for the past two months or so, working through all the feedback we've received on Windows 7. It should be no surprise but the Release Candidate for Windows 7 will have quite a few changes, many under the hood, so to speak, but also many visible," Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live engineering, wrote in a post on Microsoft's Engineering Windows 7 blog.
It's All in the Timing
Part of the reason that Sinofsky and his team are so busy may be that they're working to ensure Windows 7 makes its debut ahead of Microsoft's public timeline.
That theory got another shot in the arm this week when Ray Chen, president of Taipei-based Compal Electronics, revealed to Bloomberg News that the actual general availability date for Windows 7 would be far sooner than the software giant had been claiming.
"According to current planning, it should be late September or early October," Ray Chen, whose company is a Microsoft hardware partner and makes laptop computers for HP and Acer, told Bloomberg.
Microsoft dismissed Chen's comments, however, instead providing the same statement it has offered to questions about Windows 7's schedule for the past year.
"We expect Windows 7 to ship approximately three years from the Windows Vista consumer general availability launch," a Microsoft spokesperson told InternetNews.com in an e-mail Thursday.
InternetNews.com has previously reported that Microsoft has a target date to ship the Windows 7 RC — the final testing phase before a program is "released to manufacturing" or RTM. That could mean Microsoft is aiming for a mid-April RC, followed by an RTM of June 3.
Even if RTM does occur in early June, however, some analysts have voiced the opinion that it may still as many as five months to fill the channel and have Windows 7 systems for sale.
While that would mean that Windows 7 will have missed the back-to-school rush in late summer, that timing would still allow plenty of time for Windows 7 to be the major focus of sales during the upcoming holiday shopping season.
"Late September or early October is really ideal [for launching Windows 7]," Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group, told InternetNews.com. "It gives you [the retailers] the chance to ramp up for the holidays."
Another analyst, though, thinks even late September may be too late. That is, there's a lot to do in those four or five months in order to assure a smooth launch.
"The problem is that for Microsoft to get this out for Christmas, they need to get it into the hands of retailers by mid-November," Michael Silver, research vice president for client computing at Gartner, told InternetNews.com.
"It will be surprising if it slips into October, and if it slips, that puts Christmas [sales] in jeopardy," Silver said.
