Blackcomb, Vienna, Windows 7 and whatever else it's going to get called is Microsoft's answer to the less than glowing reception that Windows Vista has received.  In typical Microsoft fashion this less then glowing reception translates to 140 million PC's that have been shipped with Windows Vista.

Bill Gates spoke earlier this month about the company's plans for the future at the Windows Digital Lifestyle Consortium in Tokyo, Japan.  In this speech he confirmed  "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".  The full speech can be accessed here.

Microsoft has been uncharacteristically tight lipped about Windows 7 features, however some news snippets have leaked out.  Here are some of the proposed features:

1. Increased mobile connectivity
2. iPhone style touch screen technology which will be multi touch
3. Improved Energy conservation
4. A new version of Windows Explorer
5. Windows Virtualization
6. WinFS (Windows Future Storage) technologies
   

I think the "pervasive multi touch" feature is the most awesome feature and incidentally it's the only feature that Microsoft has hinted at directly, the others are possibilities.

Overall the idea is to make Windows energy efficient, easier to use, more secure and better connected at a lower cost.  Windows 7 is expected to ship in 2010.