I've encountered today a post regarding Microsoft's Vista contemplations about their pricing and regardless of the specific subject covered in the post, it came to my attention that something has changed.
Before web 2.0 business pattern pf rapid application deployment, Microsoft and few other vendors were using a strategy of talking a lot about upcoming versions of their product for gaining feedback before a real launch (some kind of post product-marketing strategy). Creating a press buzz is easy for Microsoft and it helped them many times to achieve an image of innovators without releasing anything (and many times they have canceled products due to bad feedback or inability to stand up to their promises).
Anyway, now in the web 2.0 era (it feels good to write this phrase:), where innovators publish applications very fast, this strategy being used by Microsoft seems old and broken. In the past where vendors used to release a version once a year in the best case, seeing Microsoft's announcements was exciting. Now it seems like an old strategy and it mainly emphasizes their delays and not their innovations.
Dudu
UPDATE: See what I found Post-Vista: Microsoft to Rethink Windows
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