Microsoft issued a retraction of Chief Executive Steve Ballmer's claims this week that Windows 8 would arrive in 2012 on tablets and PCs.

The Redmond, Wash., company said Ballmer misspoke and even backed off the next release of its Windows operating system being called Windows 8.

In aWednesday email from a company spokeswoman, Microsoft said:

It appears there was a misstatement. We are eagerly awaiting the next generation of Windows 7 hardware that will be available in the coming fiscal year. To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows.

On Monday, at a Microsoft developers conference in Tokyo, Ballmer said Windows 8 (as he called it) would arrive next year on many different devices.

We've done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand-new user interface. We've added touch and ink and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there's a whole lot more coming. As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.

It now seems Ballmer either didn't know what he was talking about, or he spoke too soon.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, at a press conference announcing the company's purchase of Skype in San Francisco on May 10, 2011. Credit: Noah Berger/Bloomberg