The Latest Microsoft Windows 7 Roadmap

The Latest Microsoft Windows 7 Roadmap

Microsoft is releasing monthly updates to OEMs on their upcoming Windows 7 operating system. Here is their latest update. The next update is scheduled to be released around November 13, 2008.

Windows 7 SKU Details

Microsoft is currently finishing product research based on feedback from OEM and end users which will help them determine potential Windows 7 offerings / SKUs. Microsoft aims to provide detailed Windows 7 SKU information sometime this month (November, 2008).

Windows 7 Language Waves

Microsoft will be launching Windows 7 in seven "language waves". We have no idea if the choice of 7 language waves is merely a coincidence or intentionally chosen to match the name. The actual date for Windows 7's release to manufacturing (RTM) has yet to be determined, so the schedule below is based on the final RTM date.

Wave	Release Date	Languages
Wave 0	RTM	English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French
Wave 1	RTM + 14 Days	Italian, Dutch, Russian, Simplified Chinese
Wave 2	RTM + 28 Days	Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Korean
Wave 3	RTM + 45 Days	Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong), Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian
Wave 4	RTM + 59 Days	Danish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Finnish
Wave 5	RTM + 73 Days	Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Ukrainian
Wave 6	RTM + 87 Days	Thai, Romanian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Bulgarian
Wave 7	RTM + 101 Days	Estonian, Croatian, Serbian Latin, Latvian, Slovenian

As you can see, localized versions of Windows 7 will be released over a rather protracted period of 101 days after the RTM of the first wave.

Do note that these are Release To Manufacturing (RTM) dates, not actual public release dates. As mentioned in our report on Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3, the release to manufacturing (RTM) means exactly that - Microsoft Windows 7 has been finalized and is now released for manufacturing, and to the OEMs for integration with their systems. The public launch and end-user availability of Windows 7 will come later.