Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 operating system (OS) is on track to be released this year and it is likely that it will ship in September – October timeframe, according to the head of a large contract makers of personal computers. The release of the new OS will help Microsoft to boost sales and will also spur interest towards the newest personal computers.

“According to current planning, it should be late September or early October,” said Ray Chen, president of Taipei-based Compal Electronics, a contract maker of personal computers, reports Bloomberg news-agency.

Microsoft admits that currently shipping Windows Vista has a number of drawbacks: many large customers decided not to deploy the OS after testing it; popular netbook computers cannot run Vista because of its high system requirements; and many consumers have been criticizing Vista, which ultimately damaged its image industry-wide.

“We have a pretty good product [Windows 7]. We have some pent-up latent interest, as people have been testing, but not deploying Vista, but we’ll have to see [whether they deploy Windows 7],” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer for Microsoft, during a meeting with analysts.

Considering huge popularity of netbooks, there is no surprise that the lack of appropriate OS for them now hurts sales of Microsoft and Windows 7 should correct this since there will be a special cut-down version developed just for ultra low-cost personal computers (ULCPCs).

It is widely known that Microsoft has been working hard to improve user interface as well as performance in Windows 7 and make the new OS much more user friendly overall. Many reviewers and early adopters agree that Microsoft has succeeded in improving its desktop OS dramatically.

All-in-all, Microsoft Windows 7 seems to be fine. Now the question is whether consumers will actually buy new computers with premium operating system during the time of the global economic crisis...

Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Compal