When you are in charge of your company’s or organization’s infrastructure, you need to plan ahead. That’s probably one of the core reasons why many tech savvy users are speculating about the release date of the beta and final release of the Windows 8 operating system. A larger group is made up of tech enthusiasts who cannot wait to get their hands dirty with the first public release of the operating system.
Microsoft published the first Windows 8 video earlier this month which demonstrated the new touch interface.
Recently, Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows Division at Microsoft, told the press that Microsoft would release the new operating system two or three years after the official release of Windows 7. The current Microsoft operating system was released in October 2009, which would indicate a release of Windows 8 no later than October 2012. Then again, Microsoft is tight lipped about the new OS and things could change easily during development.
In depth news about Windows 8 are to be expected during the Build conference later this year. Microsoft corporate vice president Dan’l Lewin earlier this week suggested a similar timeline at the start-up LAUNCH event at the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus.
We will be in market – if you look at the crystal ball and just say what happened in the past is a reasonable indicator of what our forward looking timelines will be and just speculate – we’ve made the point about having a developer conference later this year, and then typically we enter a beta phase, and then in 12 months we’re in the market, so let’s make that assumption.
It is very likely that the referenced conference is the Build conference which will take place September 13 to 16 in Anaheim, California. Microsoft might release the first public beta of Windows 8 at that conference, or a short time afterwards. Then again, the 12 months period between beta and final product seems awfully long, considering that the Windows 7 beta was released by Microsoft in January 2009, nine months before the retail release of the operating system.
It could be that Microsoft plans to release the beta version of Windows 8 at the CES 2012 which will again be held in January of that year, which would fall in line with the public beta release of Windows 7 at the same conference three years ago. All indicates suggest a final release of Windows 8 in Fall 2012, most likely in September or October of that year.
