Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Reuters quoted Gates as saying that Windows 7 will be released "sometime in the next year or so."
That incredibly vague statement means we could potentially even see a new version late this year, or more likely a new version of Windows in 2009, and not the 2010 date that has been strongly suggested by Microsoft which said Windows 7 would come around ‘3 years’ after the January 2007 release of Vista, clearly pointing to a 2010 timeframe.
Of course I’ve been saying that any new Windows version should come no later than in the third quarter of 2009, to give Microsoft enough time to eradicate Vista’s bugs, introduce and test whatever new hoo-hah they want, and give Microsoft itself – and PC manufacturers – the Christmas/holiday sales boost they all love to experience.
Gates was then quoted talking up the next version’s features – as usual. He said: “I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways”.
Microsoft people love to say they’re “super excited” about this, or that. “Super” is their favourite word. Maybe the next version of Windows should be called “Windows Super”.
Reuters then paraphrased Gates as saying that “new versions of Windows would help revolutionise mobile phones and run the desk of the future, which would have a touch surface display allowing users to call up items using their hands.”
That sounds a lot like what Microsoft’s Surface PC can do, which as you’ll remember is sort-of an independently developed iPhone-clone the size of a coffee table.
In specific response to an audience question on when the next Windows will arrive, Gates was quoted by Reuters as saying that: "That'll be sometime in the next year or so that we'll have a new version.”
Yes, the “or so” qualification means it could slip to 2010, which by Microsoft’s recent standards is very possible and probably very likely.
So, when will the next version of Windows arrive again? Will it be Vista Reloaded, or Surface PC lite? Or a whole new mess? Whatever it is, Bill Gates says it's coming “in the next year or so”. Wow. Take from that what you will.
Take also what you will from 'The Beta Guy', whose website describes 'exclusive' knowledge on what Windows 7 will supposedly really be like, with a properly re-written OS, better drivers and in-built virtualisation to give Windows users an environment that can run Vista and XP programs without issues. Which sounds like what Vista should have been in the first place.
So, in the meantime, enjoy your XP, Vista, Mac OS X, Hardy Heron, Commodore 64 or {insert your OS/platform} - while Microsoft gets its message straight.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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