Despite earlier announcements this week at TechEd from various Microsoft noteworthies that the SP1 beta would be made available on or before the end of July, 2010, Thurrot reports that “…now this date, which was ‘GA+1,’ or one year after the general availability of Windows 7 and [Windows Server 2008]R2, is out of date.” He then goes on to say that “In fact, SP1 could be shipping a lot later than originally planned and won’t even make it in time for the end of 2010.”

That’s pretty interesting, and when taken with Microsoft’s recent “message of import” about Windows 7 SP1 — namely, that there’s no real reason to wait for SP1 to get the adoption process underway — makes the kind of crazy sense I’ve learned to grant some credence when it comes to decoding the often-ineffable work of the spinmeisters in Redmond. Not only does this help to make a virtue of a necessity, it also lets them protect their revenue projections for 2010, even if SP1 slips into the next calendar year.

Boy, will it be interesting to see how this one pans out, and whether or not beta in July translates into general availability and/or public release of the final SP1 before or after next New Year’s. Only time will tell!

But there’s one “very interesting” implication to SP1 release that may interest OEMs and customers alike. That is, so-called downgrade rights to Windows XP for Windows 7 end either 18 months after the introduction of Windows 7 (April 2011) or when SP1 goes public, whichever comes first. Only big-time enterprise customers are exempt from this — namely, those companies that subscribe to Microsoft Software Assurance or that purchase Windows through volume licensing agreements (those buyers retain rights to run versions of Windows all the way back to Windows 95!)

Now that SP1 is at least rumored if not actually poised for release up to 8 months prior to April, 2011, this is something that system vendors and enterprise users must consider carefully. Even though an official release date (or even month) stil remains to be determined and announced, organizations that remain committed to Windows XP may find themselves forced to re-think that relationship in the light of coming events and software releases.

Once SP1 does ship, the only way that organizations can keep using XP-specific applications is to use Windows XP Mode inside Windows 7. And that, in turn, requires adoption of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise because only these three editions support that capability (which also requires grabbing the necessary code and licensing information from the Microsoft Website). Put that in your pipe and smoke it, as you plan your next client platform refresh cycles!

1. “For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update.”
2. “SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.”

No official release timeline is available as yet, but the rumor mill sez it will probably hit in late October or early November, 2010. I, for one, will be very interested to learn more about the enhanced RDP client capabilities that will come when Windows 7 clients work with Windows Server 2008 R2 hosts with SP1 also installed. Maybe Microsoft is trying to coat-tail a new server release on a seemingly successful desktop release for once? I don’t see any betas for this SP release up on MSDN just yet, but please count on me to keep you posted when more tangible signs of what lies ahead appear there (or elsewhere).