Microsoft will offer a glimpse of Windows 8 on tablets, according to a report. And yet Microsoft is still pushing back against CEO Ballmer's own Windows 8 revelations.
Microsoft is
about to offer an early glimpse of the next version of Windows on a tablet,
according to a new report.
Speaking to
three unnamed people "with knowledge of the company's plans,"
Bloomberg reported May 26 that Microsoft will
demonstrate how the next version of Windows will run on an Nvidia Tegra chip,
itself based on the ARM architecture that underpins most of today's smartphone
and tablet processors.
In a recent
speech to the Microsoft Developer Forum in Tokyo, CEO Steve Ballmer seemed to
confirm that Windows 8 will make its debut in 2012, and appear on a variety of form
factors, including tablets and PCs.
"As we look
forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next
year, there's a whole lot more coming," he told the audience, according to a
transcript published on Microsoft's Website. "As
we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows
8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors."
Just as
quickly, though, Microsoft seemed anxious to tamp down on Ballmer's comments.
"It appears there was a misstatement," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in a
statement
circulated to media. "To date, we have yet to
formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows."
Steven
Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live division, will appear at
the ninth
D:All Things Digital conference scheduled to kick
off May 31 in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. It's not inconceivable that he could
demonstrate some features of the next version of Windows at the event; but
coming so soon after Microsoft's strident official denials, it would also give
more astute company observers a serious case of mental whiplash.
Whatever the
immediate situation, Microsoft has a good reason to keep the next version of
Windows under wraps for the time being. Windows 7 sales continue to fuel a
healthy portion of the company's revenue. If businesses and consumers believe
yet another version of Windows is in the pipeline for release sometime next
year, they might shy away from upgrading to Windows 7-something that Microsoft
would dearly like to avoid.
Sinofsky
announced during this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the
next-generation platform will support SoC (system-on-a-chip) architecture, in
particular ARM-based systems from partners such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas
Instruments. That would give Microsoft the ability to port the next Windows onto
tablets and other mobile form factors powered by ARM offerings.
Any other
details have remained firmly under wraps. In April, bloggers Rafael Rivera and
Paul Thurrott dissected various features of what they called an early
operating-system build on Rivera's
Within Windows blog. According to those postings,
the next version of Windows could incorporate an Office-style ribbon interface
into Windows Explorer, complete with tools for viewing libraries and manipulating
images. The bloggers also included a screenshot of an early device-unlock
window, done in the "Metro" design style already present in Windows Phone-and
perhaps an early hint of how "Windows 8" will appear on mobile form factors.
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