In Microsoft gave a sneak peak of the next generation Windows OS at the D9 conference at Washington on June 1, 2011. The Windows 8 OS, or whatever Microsoft eventually decides to call it, seems to have been designed in such a way that it can be as efficient while running a Tablet as it is in running a powerful desktop. It is clearly inspired by the Windows Phone 7 and its seriously creative UI is geared to allow information to live in a far more free-form way. This seems like an interface that should be natural for any touch or gesture driven device.
The tile based start up screen offers a customisable, scalable full-screen view of apps, which can get launched at a faster pace. You have live tiles with up to date information on the status of your apps. The switching between the apps is fluid and natural. Multitasking is easier, as it is easy to snap and resize an app to one corner of the screen. Built through the usage of HTML5 and JavaScript, the web-connected and web-powered apps have access to the complete power of the PC. There is Internet Explorer 10 to ensure a fully touch optimised browsing.
The homescreen that was displayed at the demo at D9 conference had a clean look featuring a picture and a clock. In order to muster the page of tiles, you have to brush upward on the screen. Instead of a start button, rows of soft buttons appear down the right side of the screen. When the buttons are touched, many other controls pop up on the screen. The interaction with the system happens mostly through the swipe like gestures that can call up the controls and switch between tiles or applications. The screen keyboard turns out to be quite comfortable to use.
Along with all this, Windows 8 also offers a seamless access to all the existing Windows programs and the latest apps. Even though the OS has been designed with touch capable devices in mind, it is capable of running equally well with a traditional keyboard and mouse. The idea seems to be to allow users to make a seamless transition from mobile to tablet to desktop without experiencing much of a difference in the UI. Microsoft is calling this to be the biggest transformation of the Windows interface since the advent of Windows 95.
One exceptional thing about Windows 8 may lie in the fact of the missing equation with Intel and AMD. Microsoft has already announced that its next version of Windows will run on ARM architecture. ARM chips, favoured mainly for their miniscule power consumption, are used in a vast majority of worlds cell phones, tablets and other mobile devices. Already there have been rumours that Apple might switch to ARM for its notebook range. The Apple iPad is powered by ARM chip, which gives a battery life of up to 10 hours. So we can expect a strong battery life from the Windows 8 tablets too. The price of ARM chips is also much lower than that of Intel and AMD, so the price of devices might turn out to be lower.
It is also a fact that an Intel x86 Chip will be lot faster in running various applications as compared to ARM chip. However, the issue of super fast speeds is likely to matter only to those who prefer to use their devices for playing high intensity 3D video games. For majority of the normal users, the speed of a top of the line ARM Cortex A-15, which can run up to 2.5 GHz across multiple cores, should be enough. By the time Windows 8 devices start hitting the market, the ARM chips might have become faster than how they are today. Some tech analysts believe that the Windows 8 could turn out to be capable of running on both the platforms x86 and ARM.
So far Microsoft has been sitting in the sidelines of the tablet wars. With Windows 8, it will get pitted against the worlds most formidable tech company, Apple. If Microsoft manages to the OS right, and its tablets are able to offer a familiar windows experience, and most importantly, if the price is right, then the company might even be able to dominate the tablet space, just as it dominates the desktop space. The bottom line is that Apple cannot afford to take the Windows 8 challenge lightly.
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