Microsoft’s make or break bet with Windows 8

During the iPad mini launch event, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned that the company’s Mac range has outgrown PC sales for the past six years.
On the tablet front, the iPad really owns the market. Apple has already sold 100 million tablets in about 2.5 years and is still growing strong. Microsoft, on the other hand, does not exactly have any presence in the tablet space. It still owns the PC space but its dominance is slowly but steadily wearing off. Tonight Microsoft will be embarking on a journey that could either ensure it remains relevant in the PC operating system business or it loses further ground to Apple. It will also dip its toes in the frigid tablet waters, most of which are flowing from Cupertino. Read on for more.


Windows 8, the brand new operating system that Microsoft is launching tonight, is the first real overhaul Windows has had in the last 17 years since the launch of Windows 95 on August 24, 1995. Just like what Windows 95 did to Windows with its Graphical User Interface, Microsoft hopes Windows 8 would do for a predominantly touchscreen based interface. Microsoft is looking at the future, where it hopes all desktops and laptops will have touchscreens by default, just like current smartphones and of course, tablets. The bigger bet, however, is the assumption that users want the same functionality across form-factors (tablets, laptops, hybrids) and use them in the same manner. At the moment, tablet owners use their tablets majorly for content consumption and some content creation. For anything that requires extensive multitasking and complex, resource-hungry tasks, they invariably end up on a Windows PC or a Mac. Microsoft is attempting to change that by pitching Windows 8 as the single operating system that can work on tablets, laptops, desktops and other devices that are somewhere in between. The marketing message here is that tablets and PCs don’t have to be two different form-factors. But will Microsoft’s bet pay off? Check out our first impressions of Windows 8 to find out.