Microsoft will release Windows 8 on both Intel and ARM chipsets in October, according to a new Bloomberg report.
Microsoft will
release Windows 8 in October, according to a new
Bloomberg report.
That report,
which cited unnamed sources with knowledge of the schedule, suggested that
the next-generation operating system will appear on devices with competing
Intel and ARM chipsets. While Intels products continue to handily dominate the
traditional PC space, ARM processors run a significant percentage of mobile
devices such as tablets.
Microsoft, in
a bid to make Windows 8 operate effectively on both traditional PCs and
tablets, retooled the familiar desktop-based interface. When users first start
their Windows 8 machine, they see a start screen composed of colorful,
touch-friendly tiles linked to applications; from there, another click (or
finger-tap) will send them to the regular desktop, which has undergone some
tweaks of its own.
If Bloombergs
report pans out, it would be wholly unsurprising. Windows XP and Windows 7,
Microsofts two most successful Windows versions, both arrived on store shelves
in October of their respective release years. In addition, near the end of
2011, executives from a major hardware partner told
eWEEK that Microsoft was aiming for an October 2012 release date
for Windows 8.
In November
2011,
leaked slides from Asus hinted at a pair of
Windows 8 tablets arriving in the third quarter of 2012. Earlier in March, an
article in
DigiTimes suggested that Nokia would launch a
Windows 8 tablet sometime in the fourth quarter of 2012, complete with a
10-inch screen and a Qualcomm dual-core chipset; that information came from
unnamed sources among upstream component suppliers, who predicted that Nokias
venture into the tablet PC market will also further intensify competition
among non-iPad tablet PC vendors.
Dell also gave
indications it plans to release Windows 8 tablets later in the year. We have a
road map for tablets that we havent announced yet, Dell chief commercial
officer Steve Felice told
Reuters March 16. We dont think that this
market is closed off in any way. Those announcements will apparently come in
the second half of 2012, suggesting a holiday release for whatever Dell has
tucked up its collective sleeve.
In the tablet
space, Microsoft will face significant competition from Apple, which recently
released the next version of its best-selling iPad. And in traditional PCs,
where Windows has long held an overwhelming market advantage, the company needs
to cope with the prospect of mobile devices becoming peoples primary computing
device. Windows 8 on tablets is the potential answer to both those conundrums, but
it also sets up a significant challenge for Microsoft in the back half of 2012.
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