Microsoft’s design of Windows 8 should not really come as a surprise to anyone. The touchscreen optimised operating system looks uncannily like something Apple might design.
The Store
One of the first things to catch the eye is the tiled home screen, where users are presumably able to enter small portals of their choosing. Clearly noticeable is the not so small ‘store’ tile.
Microsoft have not released many details about this yet, but one would imagine this is a portal for purchasing software and possibly all sorts of media such as movies and entertainment. Microsoft clearly wants some of the success that iTunes has had.
The new browser is also touch screen optimised. Microsoft will no doubt attempt to use this browser in an attempt to steer traffic towards its own post-purchase sales funnels.
All in all, we are seeing a shift for Microsoft to try and earn more money from content distribution and the operating system is essentially a vehicle for this. In short, Apple and Microsoft have become de facto media companies.
Creating a consumer cult
This is a space that Google also firmly occupies, and is clearly winning. Unsurprisingly again, Google have been working on their own operating systems for some time now. The reasons for this is clear, greater branding recognition and the ability to achieve a motivated cult of consumers.
To date, Apple is the main company to achieve this. People will say that they are an Apple user. This means that they might own a few Apple devices, shop for media at the Apple store and it will often be to the exclusion of other brands.
People who use Microsoft or Google products have so far been unable to achieve this consistency in their product lines. People don’t generally use Microsoft products and wear it as a badge of pride
With this all said, the new strategy for operating systems and applications will be to push downloadable content on to consumers. Don’t be surprised if the cost of operating systems to consumers falls even lower to the point where OS developers are simply giving the operating systems away for free.
Links to preferred media outlets, such as news and weather channels, where there are more chances to retrieve revenue from the user via subscriptions to web services or simply advertising.
Conclusion
As important as its role in operating system design is, it is undeniable that Microsoft is attempting to really cash in on its applications sales, and now in downloadable content.
The full transition will take some time, but it’s a fair prediction that desktop and tablet operating systems from Microsoft will be free within the next few years.
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No doubt, this operating system has the best user interface of all time Windows, lots of great features make it a modern OS but still it is not getting that much of buzz among people, I really don’t understand the cause?
In my opinion, the move of Microsoft with its windows 8 is for penetrating the tablet/smartphone market whereas Apple fans takes pride with the product slick design.
Have not seen windows 8 personally, but I am pretty sure this is bring something to the game tablet computing. 🙂
If I’m honest I’m not a great fan of Windows 8 from what I’ve seen of it. The metro interface would probably work really well on a tablet but I’m unsure of its practicality on a desktop machine.
Having said that, I’ve only briefly tested out the developer preview so they might make some changes before the official release. I guess we’ll have to see what happens.
I’m not exactly sure what to think about Windows 8 yet to be honest. It looks like it’d work really well on a tablet PC but I’m not sure on the interface for an ordinary desktop computer.
It does look nice, but will it be practical? I guess only time will tell. I’d say you covered most of the issues on this page, so thanks McKinley.
Yeaaaaaa….. 😀 😀 cool i’m waiting from long time for windows 8… 😀
and now, i saw your post …. yeaaa we can run windows 8 on any pc… cool 😀
also i got the news windows 8 coming on October … hmmm i can’t wait any more now. 😀
Is it really as good as you say? I really don’t care for a touch screen but I guess to each his own. I don’t like the home screen. It takes up too much space. Maybe I am just too used to my old screen.
Well said, Windows 8 is like the new media, kind of less on geeky side but more on entertaining users with its comfortable features. But to be frank, I still in dillema whether to migrate to Windows 8 or should I stay with my more flexible Windows 7? 🙂
I think Windows 8 is more of an advanced version of Windows 7 with lot of added UI. Consumer preview is just out and looks good…Let’s see how long I can resist… 🙂
Tried Windows 8 Preview and its amazing waiting eagerly for Windows 8 launch.
I am also waiting for RC release, I will move on to it as soon as it released…:)
Really intrigued to see how this goes down, I’m a bit of an Apple addict junkie but all competition only makes it better for the consumer
ohh yes, at the end it will be the customer who will be benefited.
I am excited to see the windows 8… Maybe they have similar features such as 2007 but I am used in getting this…
Major improvement in UI and might be a online store in desktops…Google already have web store for chrome so they need to come up with something.
well, who knows maybe we’ll have desktops from Microsoft in some time) At least, I will be very pleased with this fact
competition is always good for us…lets see if they will come up with the hardware’s and start selling desktops.
I can’t wait to look at its design… if it will be like Apple’s, then I will be very satisfied)
We need to see how far will it go to match apple in designing, but initial snapshots looks promising.
I’m looking forward to Win 8 already, although I do love my Win 7 PC.
I always like newer versions of OS, tech freak might be…this screenshots are looking good, so might be a good upgrade.
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