“Microsoft probably wants the world to know they’re thinking about the next gen system”
Possible but it seems a bit early in the development cycle for that.
I give the Boys In Redmond credit for trying to think ahead. They want to get back to a release cycle of a new major version every 2-3 years at most. This past cycle damn near killed them.
And they need to get something out there that stomps XP into the ground for smaller and handheld systems, or else they'll still be competing with their old operating system for the next 4 years.
I'm betting this is real, and is only the tip of the iceberg.