Microsoft launches Windows 8, its 'biggest product' ever

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Microsoft launches Windows 8, its 'biggest product' ever

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks Thursday during a news conference to launch Windows 8 in New York. "This is the biggest product we've ever done," he said. / TIMOTHY A. CLARY/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Microsoft introduced the biggest overhaul of its flagship Windows software in two decades, reflecting the rising stakes in its competition with Apple and Google for the loyalty of customers who are shunning personal computers and flocking to mobile devices.

"This is the biggest product we've ever done," CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday, comparing it with the arrival of the PC in 1981 and the introduction of Windows 95.

Microsoft packed the new Windows with touch-screen capabilities, designed to vault the company into the tablet market dominated by Apple's iPad. To avoid being left behind as computing increasingly shifts to mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, the company radically altered Windows' familiar design and scrapped a strategy that had it relying entirely on partners to produce Windows computers.

"In creating Windows 8, we shunned the incremental," Windows President Steven Sinofsky said. Windows 8 and the company's first-ever computer, the Surface tablet, go on sale today.

More than 1,000 computers have been certified for Windows 8, Sinofsky said. That will include the first Windows machines capable of running on chips with technology from ARM Holdings, instead of Intel. The Windows store does have some popular apps, including those from media-streaming companies Hulu and Netflix. Still, Microsoft won't say how many apps are available for the operating system, and the lack of a broad range of games, tools and other downloadable software will detract from the Surface in a head-to-head comparison against the iPad and its more than 275,000 apps.

Machines with Windows 8 that run chips from Intel can run older Windows programs.

More Details: Start button disappears

One of the biggest changes with Windows 8 is the disappearance of the familiar start button at the lower left corner of the screen. There will be a new screen filled with a colorful array of tiles, each leading to a different application, task or collection of files.

After his keynote address in New York on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was asked by the Associated Press whether there was any chance of bringing it back.

His reply: “You’ve got a whole screen as a start button.” It’s a reference to the screen of tiles.

Source : Detroit Free Press - http://www.freep.com

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Microsoft still confident in wooing enterprise with Windows 8

Related searches:Windows 8

Microsoft still confident in wooing enterprise with Windows 8

The Windows 8 launch in Australia with Pip Marlow. 
(Credit: ZDNet/Spandas Lui)

Windows 8 has been met with a tepid reception from the enterprise sector, but Microsoft expects to win businesses over with the new operating system's mobile security and management features to address the rise of the mobile workforce, according to Microsoft Australia business group lead Tina Flammer.

At the Australian Windows 8 launch today, there was a lot of emphasis on what the operating system can bring to consumers and small businesses. Those are the segments that Microsoft wants to target initially, according to Flammer, but she said that it doesn't mean that Microsoft isn't looking to court larger enterprises with Windows 8.

One of the biggest drawcards of the operating system is that it can operate seamlessly across desktop and mobile devices, particularly touchscreen devices such as tablets. Microsoft Australia general manager Pip Marlow said that Windows 8 "makes touch a first-class citizen," and that it is suitable for home and office life.

But so far, businesses have not responded well to Windows 8. The Commonwealth Bank said it is inevitable that it will adopt Windows 8, but it is actively seeking viable alternatives. Gartner has predicted that 90 percent of large organisations will not adopt the new operating system broadly, and that this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Flammer disagreed, and claimed that the top worry for CIOs today is how to manage a mobile workforce with a broad range of devices — and said that this is exactly what Windows 8 can address.

"Workers want a device they can enjoy, and the IT side of the business need to have the security and management to deal with across that," Flammer told ZDNet at the Windows 8 launch in Sydney. "That's what Windows 8 provides — incredible 'no compromise' devices that everybody loves, but devices that now have stronger security and management."

Flammer said that Microsoft gives organisations a choice on how they want to deploy the new operating system, should they choose to do so.

"Windows 8 was built on the best operating system of all time, which was Windows 7," she said. "It runs side by side with Windows 7, so whether you want to go all the way to deploying Windows 8 right away, or you're already on Windows 7, it works beautifully.

"We have dozens of customers today that are in Windows 8 pilots, that are building Windows 8 line of business applications, so we are seeing a very positive response to the operating system.

Upgrade only for Windows 8

At the launch event today, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 8 is only available as an upgrade in Australia, and consumers will not be able to buy the full version of the operating system.

This makes it currently impossible in Australia to install Windows 8 on new hardware, which is bad news for PC enthusiasts who are looking to put the operating system on a brand-new machine. The only way to have a copy of Windows 8 up and running is to already have a device running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, and to buy and install the upgrade to Windows 8.

Developers and IT professionals who are subscribers to Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN offerings have been able to get their hands on full digital copies of Windows 8 since August 1.

A boxed version of Windows 8 can be purchased for AU$69.99, while a digital download version will set you back AU$39.99 through the Microsoft website.

Source : ZDNet - http://www.zdnet.com

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