New Windows 8 : What To Expect

 

New Windows 8 : What To Expect

 Steve Ballmer: New Windows 8 Was Designed to Dominate

Microsoft is all set to deploy a re-engineered Windows system on its new Windows 8, which replaces the highly successful Windows 7.

According to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Windows 8 will gradually creep into various forms of computing standards and habits known to man, foremost of which is mobile computing where Microsoft partially admits guilt of being a latecomer.

By next year, Mr Ballmer said, about 500 million users are projected to have adopted the new Windows platform, which saw an extreme overhaul in order for smartphones, tablet computers and conventional computer systems - notebook and desktop - to accommodate the new operating system.

Speaking at the Seoul Digital Forum held Tuesday in South Korea, Mr Ballmer boldly predicted that in the aftermath of Windows 8's entry to the market, only the strongest ecosystem will be able to withstand the pressing demands of the ever-evolving computing world.
Microsoft has underpinned Windows 8's portability to its cloud computing services, which it called 'Sky Drive', presumably the company's answer to Apple's 'iCloud'.

Mr Ballmer is upbeat on the endless possibilities that come with cloud computing, which he said is an area that will later on prove who is the best in the presently competing platforms, namely Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

"The number of core (cloud) platforms, around which software developers will do their innovation, is not ever-broadening," Mr Ballmer was quoted by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying in reminding his audience that it would be cutthroat competition among the players in the industry.

And the last men standing, he stressed, would be the big ones, Microsoft included and Apple of course, the latter presently the market's dominant figure.

In an environment that is mostly fuelled by fierce, relentless and unforgiving rivalry, the Microsoft chief unleashed his fearless forecast: "There will be just a few ecosystems that really can get the critical mass."

Such scenario will begin playing out about three to five years right after Windows 8 has fully captured much of the global computing consciousness, Mr Ballmer said.

By then, the new Windows 8 "makes Windows the most popular single system," he added.

Microsoft's new cutting-edge product will tentatively hit the market by last quarter of 2012 but a preview version will be available for download starting June to prepare the way for a new breed of computer systems that PC vendors hope would resurrect the record sales that were seen when Windows was the dominant system for much of the 1990s.

Sales were dipping in the past years but figures provided recently by tech market analytic firm IDC showed that the PC industry was experiencing some form of resurgence since last year amidst the onslaught of new tablet units that commanded the attention of most buyers.

PC shipments recovered a bit last year and this year, the IDC said, it should pick up by another five percent though the firm did not specify if Windows 8 will play a big role in the projected surge of the sector that some experts thought would eventually die out.

Mr Ballmer, however, implied that Windows 8 will act as the fuel that will rev-up future sales of traditional PC units and other hardwares that will carry the new operating system.

His confidence is anchored on the firm belief that the new OS is Microsoft's "deepest, broadest and most impactful software," that will be rolled out by the tech giant.

"It's really, in some senses, a dawning of the rebirth of MS Windows," Mr Ballmer declared.