Yesterday’s revelation that Windows 7 would be released before the next Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) has made waves throughout the industry. Citing a passage from Microsoft’s WinHEC 2008 details, it was learned that this year’s early-November event would be the last engineering conference prior to the product’s release. This meant that Windows 7 could come no later than 2009’s WinHEC which appeared to have been scheduled for early May of next year. Yet as of this morning, the tech industry is coming to find that the 2009 New Orleans WinHEC information page has been subsequently taken offline. This sudden disappearance of perhaps the biggest evidence for a 2009 release has turned the tables and given cause to consider that Microsoft may be on track for 2010 after all.

While pundits and analysts continue to stoke the fires, it cannot be denied that a pre-beta release of Windows 7 at this year’s WinHEC has surprised many. While Microsoft recently completed code milestones, few expected a working copy to be in the hands of testers until the start of the new year. In line with a concern we expressed yesterday, many are hoping that the surprisingly brief timetable indicates an efficient product, not an unchanged product.

Of course time will tell where Microsoft intends to go with their next iteration of Windows. The biggest indicator of its upcoming release date will be the availability of beta builds on Microsoft’s developer network and their popular Technet service.