Posted on 10/25/2012 8:58:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can’t afford to be wrong about Windows 8.
On Thursday in New York, Microsoft will unveil a dramatic overhaul of its ubiquitous Windows operating system. If it flops, the failure will reinforce perceptions that Microsoft is falling behind competitors such as Apple, Google and Amazon as its stranglehold on personal computers becomes less relevant in an era of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
If Ballmer is right, Windows 8 will prove that the world’s largest software maker still has the technological chops and marketing muscle to shape the future of computing.
‘‘This is going to be his defining moment,’’ said technology industry analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. Ballmer’s ‘‘legacy will be looked at as what he did or didn’t do with Windows 8. If Windows 8 is not a success, a lot of people will be looking for Microsoft to make a change at the CEO level.’’
Windows 8 is designed to run on PCs and tablet computers, heralding the biggest change to the industry’s dominant operating system in at least 17 years. It also marks the first time that Microsoft has made touch-screen control the top priority, though the system can still be switched into the familiar desktop mode that allows for control by keyboard and mouse.
Ballmer sees Windows 8 as the catalyst for a new era at Microsoft. He wants the operating system to ensure the company plays an integral role on all the important screens in people’s lives — PCs, smartphones, tablets and televisions.
‘‘We are trying to re-imagine the world from the ground up with Windows 8,’’ Ballmer told The Seattle Times. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The assumption that a vast transmission architecture will be available everywhere with 100% uptime is, in my estimation, a laudable goal but an impossible dream. Far too dependent on other infrastructure (power, transmission lines, satellites) and too easily sabotaged. A huge set of vulnerabilities.
Quite right. But many people presently have a desktop, a notebook, a tablet and a phone. I suspect the number in this situation is growing.
The notion that they will want to continue indefinitely with this silliness, complete with constant manual syncing, is just ludicrous to me.
What does a tablet inherently provide, aside from size which just means data entry and display ease, over a phone? Nothing, as far as I can see.
Have tried installing it 5 times on a 3 month old computer with touch screen, 8 mb memory, 1 terabyte drive. It gets to 58% installed and a “windows 8 installtion failed” message comes back with no explanation.
Seems the tech boards on the internet are full of these problems.
Released too early?
I suspect the spellchecker program caused the crash!
Is that really 8Mb of RAM?
Windows 9 is supposed to be a killer. I’ll wait.
Sorry....8 GB...thanks
I’m on my laptop and have fat fingers.....
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