Cherry highlighted the roadmap's Office 15 launch in early 2013 as another example of dependency. If Office won't be available until then, Cherry was skeptical of a WOA launch in 2012, what with Microsoft having stressed the importance of Office on that tablet-oriented OS.

"Apple can be secretive because they build the hardware," Cherry said. "The more you control the ecosystem, the more closed you can be. But I've always thought of Windows as open."

Microsoft declined to comment today on the roadmap that Visser uncovered.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at , on or subscribe to . His email address is .

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