Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has confirmed the next version of the company's operating system will be out in 2012.
It will be called – as widely expected – Windows 8.
"As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8," says Ballmer. "Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors."
Windows 7 came out in 2009 and Vista in 2006, so Windows 8 sees Microsoft sticking to a three-yearly cycle, perhaps keen to avoid the half-decade gap between XP and Vista.
Ballmer also said improving Internet Explorer was a priority for Microsoft in the coming years.
"When it comes to HTML and JavaScript, and the browser, there will be simply no one who pushes that, not Google, not Firefox, nobody will push that faster and harder than we push with IE."
The comments were made at a meeting of software developers in Japan.
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