Microsoft slip-up suggests Windows 8 due in two years

Microsoft will release its Windows 8 operating system in 2012, according to a swiftly-taken-down blog post by one of the company’s Dutch employees.

Microsoft had previously given brief details about its next OS, with CEO Steve Ballmer recently describing the in-development version as the company’s “most risky”, but the software giant had remained tight-lipped on a potential launch date.

In a post celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of Windows 7, the company let slip that it “is on course for the next version of Windows. But it will take about two years.”

The post was taken down and replaced with a snippet of news that Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 was likely to appear early next year, but by then bloggers had spread the leak.

Microsoft has refused to comment on the leak, but a three-year upgrade cycle would be quite feasible for a company trying to keep pace with a resurgent Apple and Google.