Microsoft's Windows 8 will appear on tablets by Asus in the third quarter of 2012, according to a leaked corporate slide.
Asus will
release Windows 8 tablets before the end of 2012, according to a corporate
slideshow leaking its way across the Internet.
That slide
popped up first on
Netbooknews.de,
before drifting over to
ZDNet
and
TechRadar.
Beneath a "Windows market" subhead, it suggests Asus will offer a "ticket for
selling Windows 8 tablets in Q3'12," alongside "2 hero products GTM in Q3'12."
While that
language makes Asus' Windows strategy somewhat unclear, it hints that the
company will produce two Windows 8 tablets in the third quarter of 2012. If
verified, that would align with rumors that Windows 8 will appear in a
broad-based release closer to the end of next year. Windows XP and Windows 7,
Microsoft's two most successful Windows versions, both arrived on store shelves
in October of their respective release years.
Meanwhile,
Acer Chairman JT Wang is quoted in Taiwan-based
DigiTimes Oct. 31 as saying that Windows 8 will allow Microsoft to gain market share.
"In the past, Microsoft has been adding unnecessary functions to its operating
system even after consumers already objected [to] such moves," he said, "but as
Microsoft has already started seeing its problems and will implement changes
into Windows 8, Taiwan's PC supply chain should benefit in the future."
In its bid to
reengineer Windows for the tablet era, Microsoft created a start screen for
Windows 8 loaded with colorful tiles linked to applications. Users also have
the option of flipping to a "traditional" desktop interface.
The Windows
teams crafting the next version of the popular operating system, in essence,
serve two masters: the casual users who want an easy-to-use interface,
lightweight enough to run on lower-powered PCs and tablets, and the power users
who want their highly customized systems to power through arcane multiple
processor-draining tasks.
In order to
meet the needs of both groups, Microsoft is also redesigning key Windows
features like Task Manager. The company's
Building
Windows 8 blog, its official
conduit for information about the operating system, has discussed issues such
as reducing runtime memory requirements and malware security.
Those radical
alterations, however, have provoked some users into protesting the changes. One
target of ire: Microsoft's decision to integrate the "ribbon" user interface,
which offers tabs and icons in a horizontal or vertical panel, into Windows 8.
"We chose the
ribbon mechanism, and to those that find that a flawed choice, there isn't much
we can do other than disagree," Windows and Windows Live division President
Steven Sinofsky blogged Sept. 2. "We are certain, and this proved out, that the
dislike of the ribbon is most intense in the audience of this blog."
Microsoft can
only hope that users will find the final version of Windows 8, no matter how
radical its changes, palatable.
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