Because Microsoft won;t comment officially on “Fiji,” the expected, standalone update to Windows Media Center, it;s tough to confirm a date slip.But Chris Lanier, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in the digital media arena, is predicting that Fiji won;t debut in 2007, as Microsoft and other interested parties had been predicting. Instead, Lanier;s betting Fiji is now a second half of 2008 update.In a blog post dated June 12, Lanier blogged:“Don’t expect Fiji this year. Don’t expect Fiji early next year. Based on water-cooler talk I‘ve heard, I wouldn’t expect to see it released until around Q3-Q4 2008 which would bring the platform back to Sep/Oct releases as has been customary considering the fact that 2002. . Date is highly subject to change if things like DIRECTV support are to be included.”(I;m kind of surprised to see this post still up there, almost a week after it originally posted. The Windows client team, as of late, hasn;t been too happy about transparency around upcoming products.)Microsoft kicked off the Fiji beta selection process in April. Lanier said that as of last week,
Windows 7 Serial, no testers had yet gotten Fiji beta bits.Update: I asked Microsoft for a comment on June 19. On June 20, I received the following statement from a corporate spokesman:“Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation about product ship dates and it;s just too early to discuss future versions at this time. “(Thanks to Nathan Weinberg on Inside Microsoft for your latest Fiji link.)