Windows Vista to reshedule again

Back in late March, Microsoft announced that it was pushing back its launch of Office 2007 to coincide with the launch of Windows Vista. As a result, Office 2007 was scheduled to ship in October to volume licensees and early January for retail customers. Yesterday, Microsoft announced another delay for its productivity suite.

Thanks to a new launch schedule, Microsoft is now giving a more vague "late 2006" release for volume licensees and "early 2007" for retail availability. It appears that Microsoft is taking feedback that it is receiving from Office 2007 Beta 2 to heart and is making some changes under the hood. "Based on internal testing and beta 2 feedback around product performance, we are revising our development schedule to deliver the 2007 Microsoft Office system by the end of year 2006, with broad general availability in early 2007. Feedback on quality and performance will ultimately determine the exact dates," said a Microsoft spokesman to BetaNews.

It appears that delays are becoming more and more frequent at Microsoft these days. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that even Windows Vista may be delayed again.