Will Windows Fiji Drop as Remote-Less as Vista's Windows Media Center?

Next month, Microsoft will celebrate the five-year anniversary of Windows Media Center. But, following the availability of Windows Vista, Windows Media Center will not be complete when turning five. Absent from the celebration, and "missing in development" is the Windows Media Center Remote. On January 30, 2007, Microsoft made Vista available to the general consumers worldwide, and for the first time since the introduction of Windows Media Center, the program shipped as an integer part of two editions of the operating system. Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate both feature Windows Media Center functionality. But ever since 2006, after the operating system was released to manufacturing, Microsoft promised in the Windows Vista Product Guide the delivery of the Windows Media Center remote.

At the beginning of the coming month, Windows Vista will have been available for a total of seven months. In this time, Microsoft managed to push in excess of 60 million licenses to the platform worldwide, and estimates that Home Premium and Ultimate are two of the most successful editions of the operating system. Additionally, September 3 is synonymous with the five year old anniversary of Windows Media Center. A remote-less anniversary to say the least. And since we are on the subject of anniversaries and celebrations, Microsoft Hardware turned 25 on August 22. Guess that with all the heavy drinking and partying over at Redmond, Vista's Windows Media Center remote got lost.

The last sign of life indicated by Microsoft for the Windows Media Center remote was a patent filed at the end of May for the ornamental design for a remote controller, namely the design of the Windows Media Center accessory. The remote slowly dropped out of sight, with little word from Microsoft on the matter. Let's just hope that Microsoft will not wait for the next release of Windows Media Center to deliver the remote. Speaking of which�currently, Window Fiji is planned as an out of band release sometime by the end of 2008. In mid April, Microsoft opened the registration process for the beta testing of Windows Fiji.