Steve Ballmer said that Windows 8, or to be more precise, the next release of Windows, would be Microsoft’s riskiest upcoming product when interviewed at the Gartner Symposium. No additional information was given by Mr Ballmer, leaving a lot of people puzzled by the answer.
If you’d ask tech savvy users before that symposium about Microsoft’s riskiest product, it is almost guaranteed that the majority would not have picked Windows 8. They’d probably have picked Windows Phone 7, or Xbox Kinect, or any of the other products that Microsoft is working on.
But Windows 8? Now, this does not have to mean that the operating system will be bad. It could as well mean that Microsoft finally has decided to add features or make changes that they consider important, but do not know how the public will perceive them.
Could Windows 8 become a second Vista? We are not sure what Mr. Ballmer meant when he answered the question, but he surely must have known something at this point that the public does not. All we know about Windows 8 is from leaks, job postings and other informal sources.
Could it be that Microsoft plans to make a big change in Windows 8? They certainly have to do something to get users to switch to the operating system, especially after the rave reviews that Windows 7 received.
Why would anyone want to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 8, if the latter would not offer something special that the former would not? Take a look at the video below to judge for yourself, and let us know what you think he meant.
On a side note. Mr. Ballmer said the next release of Windows. Not Windows 8. This could hint at the possibility that the next Windows will not be named Windows 8, but something different.
