It’s official: No IE 8 until 2009

After one more public test build early next year, Microsoft plans to release the final version of Internet Explorer 8 in calendar 2009.

Microsoft officials shared the updated timetable via a November 19 post on the IE Blog.

Until yesterday, Microsoft’s only official pronouncement of when the final IE 8 release was due was before the end of “this year.” I had heard from insiders that Microsoft was aiming to release the final IE 8 build in November, 2008 — a plan which seemed quite ambitious given how often I “report a Webpage problem” to Microsoft when I’m surfing the Web using IE 8 Beta 2.