Communicating Windows 7

Typically when Microsoft ships a new OS (like Windows Vista), we immediately start talking about the next version-which begs two questions: 1) is Microsoft working on a new version of Windows, and if so, 2) why aren't you talking about it?

I thought I would spend a minute giving you an update on where we are. First, yes, we are working on a new version of Windows. As you likely know, it's called Windows 7.We are always looking for new ways to deliver great experiences for our customers. This is especially true of Windows - where we're constantly examining trends in hardware, software and services to ensure that we continue to drive the innovation that has both made Windows the world's most popular operating system and has provided a foundation on which our partners built great products and businesses. When we shipped Windows 2000, we were already working on Windows XP and we started working on Windows Vista even before we released Windows XP. So naturally, we've been thinking about the investments we made in Windows Vista and how we can build on these for the next version of Windows.

What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows. So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience. For instance, several months ago we began privately sharing our preliminary plans for Windows 7 with software and hardware partners who build on the Windows platform. This gave them an opportunity to give us feedback and gave us the opportunity to incorporate their input into our plans. As the product becomes more complete, we will have the opportunity to share our plans more broadly.

We know that this is a change in our approach, but we are confident that it will help us not only to build even better products, but also to be more predictable in the delivery of our products. We also know that this change has led to some confusion, so we would like to share information today that will hopefully clear up some of this.Before we talk about what's ahead, we should take a look at where we are today with Windows Vista. From a quality perspective, both Windows Vista SP1 and the ecosystem have delivered measurable progress in the six dimensions of quality we track -- device compatibility, application compatibility, reliability, performance, battery life and security. The business results speak for themselves. As of March 31, we had sold more than 140 million Windows Vista licenses, and analyst firm forecasts indicate that Windows Vista adoption among businesses is on a similar pace as Windows XP in similar timeframes.

Read More @ Windows Vista Blog