by , 11:55 AM EDT, July 12th, 2006

Microsoft's Chairman, Bill Gates, says there is about an 80 percent chance that Windows Vista will ship in January 2007. The lead up to another delay in the release of Microsoft's Windows XP successor was dropped on partners in South Africa, according to The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Gates warned that there may be more delays if beta testers uncover problems.

"We got to get this absolutely right. If the feedback from the beta tests shows it is not ready for prime time, I'd be glad to delay it," he said.

While Microsoft continues to delay the successor to Windows XP, Apple is preparing to preview the next version of its operating system, Mac OS X 10.5. Steve Jobs will demonstrate the new version of Mac OS X at the World Wide Developer Conference on August 7. The company is likely to ship it by Macworld 2007 in January.

While Mr. Gates is warning of more potential delays, Steve Ballmer, the company's CEO, is promising that future versions of windows will come faster. According to Globe and Mail, Mr. Ballmer told partners in Boston "Rest assured, we will never have a gap between Windows releases as long as the one between XP and Windows Vista."