With Windows 7 likely to be complete in Q4 2009, Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates hinted at what the company is planning for the next version of Windows last week.

In a speech at the Windows Digital Lifestyle Consortium (in Tokyo) last Wednesday, Gates hinted:

"We're hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I'm very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don't have a lot of work to move that data back and forth."

Gates also mentioned Windows Live services and the fact the company has 400 million users connected to these services. Also mentioned was the fact that Gates sees "a major new version of Windows every two to three years", noting that services that Windows connects up to would be updated on a regular basis.

Microsoft is currently in the middle of building Windows Live Mesh which plays on the idea of being able to sync data between multiple PCs and mobile phones.

View: Bill Gates Speech