While Microsoft is exercising to perfection Windows Omerta, one of the Redmond Company's most important global partners have leaked the release date for the first service pack to Windows Vista. Concomitantly with the general availability of Vista at the end of January, Microsoft hinted that SP1 is planned for late 2007 but all additional information was kept exclusively inhouse.

And while Microsoft is managing the media focus joggling it on Windows Vista, Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel, confirmed that service pack 1 will be released either in October or November 2007. Intel is just one example out of a range of companies that will upgrade to Vista following the availability of SP1.

"In the corporate space, I believe most companies will act like Intel They're doing some pilots and testing today. But the Vista deployment will actually happen when the Service Pack gets released in the fourth quarter time frame, probably the October-November time frame," Otellini revealed.

Microsoft has confirmed that Vista SP1 is under development but has not pointed to an official release date. Moreover, the Redmond Company has downplayed the relevance of the first service pack for Vista explaining that the updating infrastructure that it has set up decreases the impact that SP1 will deliver to Vista users.

As far, Microsoft has always dodged Vista SP1 release date questions arguing that the development program is in its early stages and as such, a fair estimate related to the availability of the SP can not be made. Still, judging by the insight provided by Otellini, Windows Vista SP1 will be launched almost simultaneously with Apple's Mac OS X Leopard.