@Chris Howard -

It concerns me, Chip, that you ask that question!

If Automattic aren’t thinking about WP4, then we should all be a lot more worried than the even the original article’s author is.

Automattic doesn't control WordPress development roadmap or cycle. Automattic runs the hosted blogging service wordpress.com.

And again I ask: what is WP4 and why should anyone be thinking about it?

It is difficult to take as credible complaints about the WordPress development process when those complaints are based on fundamental misunderstanding about how that development process works, or who makes decisions regarding it.

There is no "WP4". There was no "WP3". There will be no "WP5". WordPress 2.9, WordPress 3.0, and WordPress 3.1 were all equally major releases - just as WordPress 3.7, WordPress 3.8, WordPress 3.9, WordPress 4.0, and WordPress 4.1 will be equally major versions.

The current major release being developed is WordPress 3.8. After that, the next major release will be WordPress 3.9. Then 4.0, 4.1, and so on. There will be nothing special about WordPress 4.0, or the other 4.x major releases in comparison with WordPress 3.0 or the other 3.x major releases.

WP4 (call it whatever you want) is the the big revamp of WordPress. It’s Windows 8; it’s iOS7; it’s iPod touch; it’s Max OSX 10.0.

No, it's not. What makes you think that it is? WordPress 4.0 will simply be the next major release after WordPress 3.9.

You can’t just wake up one day and say, “Hey, let’s build WP4″. When you are as big as WP, you should have long term development plans.

You're right. The developers woke up sometime last week, held a meeting, and agreed upon the features to be included in WordPress 3.8. At some point, they'll do the same thing for WordPress 3.9, and then for WordPress 4.0.

WP4 has to happen one day.

And indeed: it will - right after WordPress 3.9 is released.

Automattic need to already be considering that day. Otherwise, when it comes, they won’t be ready.

I'm sure Automattic will be making accommodations for whatever the WordPress core development team ultimately plans for WordPress 4.0 - just as they will do for WordPress 3.8, WordPress 3.9, and WordPress 4.1 - and just as every other third-party service built on WordPress will also do.

As Steve Jobs said before he died, Apple had products in the pipeworks for at least a couple of years into the future. That doesn’t mean any of those products were set in concrete.

You can bet Apple has been talking about and making plans for OS XI since well before Steve died..

I'm guessing OS XI is considered a separate product from OS X?

There's a fundamental misunderstanding here. WordPress 3.0 was the same product as WordPress 2.0, and will be the same product as WordPress 4.0. They're all merely WordPress, which is a single product with a continuous development cycles. There was no WP2. There is no WP3. There will be no WP4 or WP5. There is only WordPress.

WP was caught napping by Ghost and Medium and now has to play catch up to convince users WP is still relevant as a simple to use blogging platform.

Competition is great, and I'm sure that the WordPress core development team will take some cues from what other platforms are doing well. But as far as being "caught napping"? Not buying it.

Ford employ a “Futurist” whose job it is to look as far forward as 2050. 37 years. Surely Automattic can look and plan two to five years ahead? https://www.toledoblade.com/Automotive/2013/06/23/Futurist-at-Ford-looks-far-ahead.html

Automattic should be already sketching out WP4, even if it is 2 or more years away.

At the current development/release pace, I would anticipate WordPress 4.0 to hit sometime in 2014. But since we don't yet even know what major features or changes are in the works for WordPress 3.9, it really doesn't much matter what will go into WordPress 4.0, or 4.1, or any other subsequent, major WordPress release.

Now, if the complaint is that the WordPress core development team doesn't have a published, long-term, master development roadmap? Yeah, that's a fair complaint, and one that I agree with.

I'm hoping that this feature-development-via-plugin model will free up the core team to work on their long-term plans for the platform and its APIs.