Hi,

many of you may have seen me present Vista and Office at recent events and I thought it was only fair that I updated you on the changes that have been annoucned over the past few days.

Two press releases have been made, both confirming the ship and launch plans for the products, which now falls before and after January.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-24OfficeTimingPR.mspx covers the Office plan and annoucnes that the product with RTM in October and a release to Software Assurance customers will happen pre-Christmas and an aligned launch with Vista will happend in January.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-21WindowsVistaDeliveryPR.mspx states pretty much the same, with Software Assurance customers getting access pre-Christmas and the launch (obviously as it is joint), in January.

This is being described in the press releases as a business and consumer launch, but since many small business customers do not have Software Assurance, they will be in the January group, which is not just consumers.

As always, more information on Vista can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista and http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview

ttfn

David