Ballmer: Windows 8 Will Bring ‘Rebirth’ of Microsoft OS - sullivanwhinged

The upcoming Windows 8 will represent "a dawning of the rebirth" of Redmond's present OS, according to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Speaking along Tuesday at the Seoul Appendage Forum in Republic of Korea, Ballmer foretold adequate to 500 one thousand thousand users will have Windows 8 by next class, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

Calling Windows 8 "the most important work we've through with," Ballmer said the burgeoning cloud computing space would be controlled by a few better platforms, including Windows, Apple's mobile and background environments, and "various forms of Linux" — a thinly-indistinct source to Android.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is currently available for download, and a more refined "Release Preview" is scheduled to arrive early adjacent month. Tablets running the touch-centric OS are expected to debut during the 2012 holiday shopping season.

According to AFP, Ballmer pitched software package developers and hardware manufacturers on Windows 8, saying that now was the "best economic opportunity" to join the platform.

Windows 8 will almost certainly sell well in Microsoft's time-honored laptop/desktop market, as nearly all new Windows PCs will accompany Succeed 8 preinstalled.

The pad of paper space, currently dominated away Apple's iPad, is another story, however. Redmond misjudged consumer postulate for tablets, and is desperately trying to gain a toehold in the market.

The good news for Microsoft is that Humanoid-based slates, apart from Amazon's Kindle Fire, have yet to resonate with either consumer or business users. If Windows 8 fulfills its promise as a mobile OS, it may soon get on a player in the tablet market.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci at Today@PCWorld, Twitter (@jbertolucci) OR jbertolucci.blogspot.com.