Microsoft CEO Ballmer backpedals on Windows 8 launch. Is Apple pressure to blame?

Whoops, Microsoft is at it again. Representatives were forced to quickly backpedal on CEO Steve Ballmer’s proclamation that the next version of Windows would be out in 2012.

Soon after he’d publically announced the news, executives were retracting his words. Adamant that they’d been blown out of proportion and were “misstatements,” they reaffirmed that there weren’t any confirmed launch plans for Windows 8.

They instead shifted the focus onto the upcoming Windows 7 hardware by stating that everyone was “eagerly awaiting the next generation […] that will be available in the coming fiscal year.”

Ballmer’s hardly one for keeping his mouth shut, but the news that a new Windows is well into its development cycle is unlikely to surprise. With continued competition from Apple pushing the company to rethink its strategies, it wouldn’t shock us if Microsoft takes another u-turn on the date in the near future.

With Apple’s OS X Lion expected in June at WWDC, and Windows revenue finding itself at a surprise decline in Q1 2011, it’s troubling days for one of Apple’s biggest competitors.

And that’s before we even mention the 21% (NPD) increase in Mac sales seen in the same quarter.

Article Via electronista

Photo Credit: TechNewsWeekly

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