Windows Vista has seen its share of delays and there are speculations circulating that push the release date even further than January 2007. Microsoft representatives have done nothing to dismiss the rumors, even more, some of them predicted at least another additional delay. This week, Bill Gates took a brake from his philanthropic work and broke the matter into percentages. He estimates that the final version of Windows Vista has an 80% chance to be market-ready in January.

This time Bill Gates expressed his concerns about eventual shortcomings of the operating system that would be revealed by the beta testers. In his perfectionist view a faulty product will be the only reason for yet another delay. In their efforts to ready Vista for commercial release Gates claimed that Microsoft wants to leave nothing to chance. "We got to get this absolutely right," Gates said. "If the feedback from the beta tests shows it is not ready for prime time, I'd be glad to delay it."

After having spent over 9 billion dollars developing Windows Vista and the Office suite, Microsoft seems to take its due time with the matter. This although time is a very important factor, at least for Microsoft's partners who have already expressed their discontent with the latest delay of the two applications. It is estimated that outsider investment in Vista complementary software and hardware products should reach a sum 20 times the investment level of Microsoft.

Bill Gates, although not offering a precise date for the Office 2007 launch, predicted that it will be in December this year.