River1,

There usually is some planning for the next version as the current one is being finished. In other words, AFAIK, right now there are

- Support people working on patching SQL 2005/ SQL 2008

- A large team of people working on SQL Server 2008 R2 getting it ready for release next year.

- A small team of people working on SQL 11, which is the version likely to be released in 2011/2012.