05/12/2012

Windows 8 users feeling Blue with rumours of new Microsoft OS in 2013

[caption id="attachment_12733" align="aligncenter" width="646"]windows skydrive™ - the outlook's ominously blue for windows 8 users windows skydrive™ - the outlook's ominously blue for windows 8 users[/caption]

Ok, who's still using Windows '97? Office 2000 or XP? Vista or Windows 7, then? No one would be at all surprised if the majority of professional PC users hadn't already switched to Windows 8.

By now, all other Microsoft platforms are all 'so three years ago' for the ahead-of-the-crowd techno-junkies.  But those who've just upgraded to the latest PC OS thinking they'd be safe for three years may want to reconsider.

Historically, major revamps from Microsoft have been rolled out every three years or so. Roughly. Windows 7 with Office 2010 fitted into the cycle like a circle into a round-ish hole, no problem.

Along comes Windows 8 this year, three years since 7, so again, no surprise there. Many people have the new operating system already; no doubt there'll be a good few more devices supported by the platform under Christmas trees later this month.

But there's a whisper on the technological grapevine that, despite Windows 8 being literally just weeks old, there's a new OS planned for next year. No bu-bu-buts and wobbly bottom lips now, children. Please, we're British, you know?

Even though the new Windows 8 users are the slice of market OEMs just love, image-conscious hipsters with lots of disposable income and/or buying products simply because they're new, it seems Microsoft might be about to betray those very consumers.

If you've bought someone Windows 8 for Christmas, keep the receipt


You know that feeling you get when a considered purchase like a tablet or PC makes you think, "Should I wait to see if it gets any cheaper?" - if you've bought into Windows 8, you might want to wish you'd erred on the side of caution.

If that teaser of gossip hasn't started the waterworks for those who've splashed out on Windows 8 kit, this additional update will be akin to sniffing English mustard. Windows Blue - it even deviates from the chronological or date formatted OS tags of the past - might actually be free.  Free, yet still integrate all Microsoft devices whichever OS they run to work seamlessly in windows skydrive™.

Yep. Nada. Zilch. Zero. And available even as early as Spring 2013.

Reading between the little old lines, there's two things that have bought about the need for a new platform so soon after the launch of Windows 8: Google and Apple.

Windows 8 has been slammed by those with heavy investment in PCs for being too tailored for tablet devices. One look at the buzz Android and iPad tablets have caused, you could have predicted Microsoft would soon be in on the act.

Even then, if the rumours about Microsoft Blue are accurate, you'd not imagine another platform so soon on the heels of a major OS upgrade like Windows 8.  Consumers are bound to ask if 8 was necessary or at least could have been delayed to incorporate the functionality of Windows Blue.

What's different about Windows Blue is that it is thought not to be replacing Windows 8 as such, but will help with connectivity across a range of devices. As you have with Android and the iCloud, Blue will be the road that carries information to the Microsoft hub in windows skydrive™.

To rub salt into the wounds of Windows 8 users, if Blue is the success analysts are predicting, pressure will be placed on manufacturers to make their apps for Blue rather than 8.

I don't know about in the cloud, but expecting consumers to stomach this without making waves is pie in the sky.




Have your say: Are you happy that Microsoft is launching an Operating System to assist integrating all products across one platform? Or pissed off because you've already bought Windows 8?

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