Microsoft: Are they going off the deep end? They’ve announced the arrival of their newest operating system Windows 8 with a beta in 2011 and full release in 2012.
A report this week from industry analyst Gartner suggests Microsoft may face resistance to Windows 8 if the operating system is released in 2012, as planned. Given how many people have desperately clung to the decade-old Windows XP, it's no surprise.
According to Gartner researcher Michael Silver, the public's issue with Windows 8 probably won't have much to do with the operating system (OS) itself, but merely exhaustion with being told over and over to upgrade -- in 2006 to Vista, in 2009 to Windows 7, and again, it's expected, in 2012 to some other version of Windows, one that may be called Windows 8.
In fact, it's likely those home and business users who've recently adopted Windows 7 will wait for 'Windows 9' in 4-6 years' time. "[Consumers] would certainly like to upgrade only to every other edition," Silver said. "If Windows 8 comes out in two years, I think that's likely to happen, that many [enterprises] will be very suspect about migrating to the next release."
Gartner's comment on this issue was sparked by a recent announcement on a Dutch Microsoft site that appeared to firm up 2012 as a likely release date for Windows 8. The blog, which made its way into the American media via Neowin.net, reportedly announced: "Microsoft is on course for the next version of Windows. But it will take about two years before 'Windows 8' [is] on the market."
It's not likely anyone at Microsoft approved of that message and no one should expect any further details about Windows 8 to emerge in the coming weeks, according to Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft. Why? Because it won't help generate sales of Windows 7, Microsoft's current top priority.
"If Microsoft starts talking up Windows 8 now, it risks slowing momentum for Windows 7," Cherry said.
