I’ve read through the comments. What no one seems to talk about is the core architecture. SP 2007 is now commonly implemented as a vast, distributed work environment; natively siloed with site security, data typed, content-centric, logically hierachical.

Now look at the Social vendors; Telligent, Newsgator, Lotus Connections, et al. Note, that they all use a single, structured database for social data. Hmmm…

Now, imagine that Microsoft a) drops a single, structured SQL database for social computing in SP vNext, b) provides (or partners provide) a UI that allows contextual “tagging” of all of that distributed data into a social context, and c) provides slick UI for Social functionality.

You will suddenly have the market leading, widely adopted, sprawling distributed siloed work environment integrated into a slick social computing platform.

I have no inside info, but, with a few tweaks, I could see a new playing field.