Microsoft may release Windows 7 in September

Posted at: 4:35pm 26th February 2009 by Tim Smalley

The president of a major Taiwanese PC maker has said that Microsoft might release Windows 7 in September

Ray Chen, president of Compal - a Taiwanese PC manufacturer who makes laptops for HP and Acer, said yesterday that Microsoft may be ready to start shipping PCs with Windows 7 installed by September.

"According to current planning, it should be late September or early October," said Chen during an investors' conference yesterday. He also said that Windows 7's release may help to stimulate PC sales, which have remained flat for the last year amid the credit crunch.

Microsoft was quick to sidestep Chen's suggestions, stating that the plan for Windows 7 is to release it about three years after Windows Vista went on sale - by 30th January 2010, in other words.  But we're not convinced that Microsoft will wait that long to release its next-generation OS - the January 2010 timeframe looks like it's a deliberately conservative timeframe in case of an unexpected delay.

If you also consider the fact that the Windows 7 beta was feature complete and the suggested rumours of the one and only Release Candidate arriving in April, it's unlikely Microsoft will need to wait until next year to release the OS unless it was sandbagging. And sandbagging isn't something it can afford at the moment following the software giant's fourth quarter financial performance, where the company saw a significant decline in Windows revenue.

Considering netbooks are the growth market right now and nearly all netbook manufacturers are opting for Windows XP on these performance-limited devices because it's less of a resource drain than Vista, it's clear that Microsoft needs Windows 7 as soon as possible because it's designed to run much better on low-cost PCs and netbooks.