Where is Windows 8 headed

[whs]

I think we have to rethink where we believe the next windows editions are headed. 4th quarter 2010, the mobile devices (Smartphones and Tablets) outsold the PCs for the first time (101 million versus 97 million Worldwide). So that's where the action is going.

In addition, the ARM (RISC) processor manufacturers came out with Duo Core processors and before year-end we will see Quad Cores. Qualcom is said to come out with a 2.5GHz Quad - that is more than e.g. the Q6600. That will make them eligible for netbooks and laptops. With their very low power consumption those devices will run forever on one charge - especially in combination with an SSD.

And what does that mean for Windows? I think the focus will shift from the traditional PC boxes to those new devices and their components. Already today you can run e.g. a Motorola Atrix Smartphone as a desktop and that is just the beginning. The traditional big desktop boxes may be a thing of the past except for some hard core enthusiasts that build one themselves.

So chances are that we will have to say goodbye to the ways we were doing things and learn a new world. But that it OK with me - a lot of exciting things ahead.

This is a chart comparing the Mobile computing growth of the first few years against the PC growht the first few years.

PS: Something is wrong with the upload. But if you click on "Click image for larger version", the pic will show up.

 

[tseven]

Basically if the stats are correct Microsoft should focus on mobile development and quick. Netbooks should be dropped. Everyone is now moving on to tablets or rather what Apple has made of tablets which are more touch screen based than what windows had to offer and still has yet to offer. They need to move fast or soon when they do enter the market they will be irrelevant. Too bad that courier never amounted to anything. However it was probably not targeted towards general population. They need a tablet that is touch screen function instead of what they always had in tablets which used the mouse point and click function. Even a pen is okay but the function should be much more intuitive to touch. Right now all they have going against all these tablets is a tablet of windows 7 which to say the least is quite unappealing.

Windows Phone 7 seemed like fun although I haven't gotten to try one out, but it looks much more fun for the general population then using a super mini laptop aka netbook or a point based tablet that Microsoft has had.