Microsoft finally dropped the Longhorn moniker today and “revealed” that its next generation client operating system will be known as Vista when it ships next year.

Like all marketing strategies, this means… anything you want it to mean.

The corporate video accompanying the announcement went some way to filling in the details. It seems using Vista will, at last, enable you to: sit in front of a computer, show someone your tablet PC, show someone else your mobile phone, get into cars while carrying a laptop and walk through sun-soaked rooms with highly polished floors, even while being buffeted by pulses of multicoloured light.

According to the video, it will also make you clear - confident - connected. Which sounds like the job description for a Microsoft major accounts manager, or possibly a mafia hitman.

Oh well, at least Microsoft can start printing up the baseball caps, T-shirts and coffee cups that journalists, partners and developers will be happily dropping into wastepaper bins within minutes of the official launch.

Oh, and the first beta will be available next month.®

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