June 3rd, 2009
Who will win the Windows 7 release date prediction pool?
With this week’s confirmation by Microsoft that it plans to release Windows 7 to manufacturing “in the second half of July,” it’s time to take another look at the entries in my Windows 7 release date prediction pool.
The rules were pretty clear: Enter the complete date – day, month, and year – when you believe Microsoft will officially announce the release to manufacturing of Windows 7. I opened the pool for entries on April 9, 2008, and the official window for predictions closed on September 15, 2008. As I wrote in a follow-up post, the crowd predicted September 30, 2009; that’s impressively close to the actual on-sale date of October 22, 2009. Assuming Microsoft hits its stated RTM deadline, one of the following people gets to claim bragging rights:
- July 15 – mark (technically not in the second half of July, but close enough to include here)
- July 17 – jmorgus
- July 20 - GeiselS
- July 23 – tcbscott
- July 24 – jcpt928
- July 25 – jsheehy
- July 27 – jimas
- July 28 – twconrad
- July 29 – me (and Steve Summers)
- July 30 – Mary Jo Foley
- July 31 – JT82
I’ll take a bow for my initial analysis in the posts, which flagged July 29 as the RTM date and was based on a post I wrote at the beginning of 2008:
My prediction? I’m sticking with what I wrote back in January. Windows 7 will be released to manufacturing on July 29, 2009, exactly 1000 days after Vista’s November 2, 2006 RTM date.
As promised, I’ll send a signed copy of Windows 7 Inside Out to the commenter who nails the date (or gets closest without overshooting it).
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 06/03/09
