While Microsoft officials have referred to MSN 9.0 as a "fiscal 2004" deliverable, company watchers expected Microsoft to deliver the next major update to its Internet service during calendar 2003. After all, archrival AOL Time Warner has just released its own AOL 9.0 Optimized service. But, according to the MSN 9.0 beta invite that just went out, Microsoft is planning for the beta to run at least through January of 2004. Despite the lag, Microsoft has been dropping numerous hints as to what to expect in its 9.0 release.