Will Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, ship in 2010 as Microsoft’s official line still maintains, or will it ship sometime in 2009, as Bill Gates seemed to imply during a recent speech? And more to the point, does it really matter?

The answer is that it matters to enterprises, most of which have yet to begin a large-scale migration to Windows Vista. If the next version of Windows looks like putting in an appearance next year, some companies will be tempted to skip Vista altogether. This also matters to Microsoft, which is likely to take a financial hit if customers decline to invest in Vista.

Expert opinion asserts that a future Windows 7 deployment will be less painful for companies migrating from Vista rather than earlier versions of Windows, but this might not cut much ice with IT managers. If a migration away from Windows XP is going to be difficult no matter when it occurs, many may choose to sweat the assets they already have for as long as possible.

If Microsoft does not wish to see this happen, it needs to be more transparent about its roadmap than it has been up to now, and convince enterprise customers that it really is worth migrating to Vista when Windows 7 already seems to be on the horizon.

Perhaps three years is just too short a gap between a major release like Vista and its supposed successor.