Microsoft’s Bill Gates spills some new strategy:
We’re hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I’m very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don’t have a lot of work to move that data back and forth. ^
And:
Microsoft is set to announce Tuesday that it is launching a “public preview” program for two server products based on its Windows Server 2008 operating system.
The products, one aimed at small business and the other at midsize firms, combine the server operating system with Exchange Server and other software into a bundle designed to cost less and be easier to install than acquiring the products separately. ^
Microsoft is going to push Server 2008 instead of Vista toward business, while refining Windows 7 as a dual attack: sharing of data across multiple devices, not SaaS, and making a light and fast operating system because, among other reasons, portable devices like the Asus Eee PC are redefining how we use computers, watch television, and communicate.
They are listening to their customers in Redmond, and have come up with a mature strategy.