Microsoft unveils Windows 8 tablet platform
Adopts many user interface features from WP7 and is demonstrated on ARM and Intel chips, but may be arriving too late
Published: 3 June, 2011
Microsoft duly showed off aspects of Windows 8 at the AllThingsD show in the US, as well as Computek in Taiwan, amid the latest wave of rumors that it has mounted a bid to acquire Nokia - though this time the chatter subsided quite quickly. Indeed, Qualcomm shared the limelight with Microsoft this time, announcing an extension of its close collaboration with the giant, to extend to the upcoming Windows release.
Windows 8 will span PCs, tablets and mobile devices, as well as supporting both x86 and ARM architectures - for the first time in full-blown Windows - and touch-based or conventional user interfaces. The demonstrations of its user interface show heavy borrowing from WP7, including the use of its trademark 'tiles' to replace traditional icons and offer quicker access to key data and services, with instant homescreen information updates.
In Los Angeles, Microsoft demonstrated its 2012 OS on a 10.6-inch touchscreen tablet, while stressing it would also run on PCs and other devices. "What we set out to do with Windows 8 was really try to reimagine what we could do with a PC," said the company's Steven Sinofsky . "You could sort of say we colored outside the lines."
However, as with WP7, Microsoft shows signs of delivering a strong user experience, but at a very late stage in the market, in this case for tablets. Windows 8 will appear next year, but there is no firm timescale as yet.
At Computek, Microsoft VP Mike Angiulo ran Windows 8 on tablets, notebooks and desktop PCs from Dell, Asustek and Quanta, using ARM-based chips from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia. Though there will be Intel x86 support of course, this was not emphasized, as Microsoft seeks to woo the mobile and tablet community, which is heavily focused on ARM. However, in the US event there was an Intel-based demo.
Qualcomm, which currently has the WP7 smartphone market to itself, is building on its close alliance with Microsoft and aims to ensure it takes the lead in mobile W8 too. It said its next Snapdragon family of mobile processors will be designed to run the upcoming Windows release, the first being the dual-core MSM8960, which is sampling this month and supports 3G and LTE, followed by the quad-core Snapdragon APQ8064, which will sample early next year.
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