Microsoft Brings Windows 8 at CES 2012

Among the products that were showcased at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last night during Steve Ballmer’s keynote, we can count the Windows 8 operating system.

The platform, made official in September last year, during the BUILD conference, is expected to become commercially available sometime in the second half of the year.

Until that happens, however, we should see it move from the Developer Preview state in which Microsoft has it available for the masses at the moment.

At CES, Tami Reller, chief marketing officer, Windows, took the stage to provide a demonstration of the most important features that Windows 8 sports.

The support for touchscreens was one of them. The platform is meant to be loaded on tablet PCs when released, and this is the first Windows client to sport the feature.

Windows 8 will bring along support for both ARM and x86 (Intel and AMD) architectures and will deliver a similar experience on all devices; at least this is what Microsoft wants us to believe.

At CES 2012, the platform was demoed both on ARM, using a prototype device running a NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, and on x86, using the same Samsung device that was showcased at BUILD.

Some of the features that were highlighted included the Lock screen, Picture password, Start screen, Charms, the Windows Store, and Metro-style apps. They will make it in all Windows 8 tablet PCs, and some of them will make it to desktop PCs as well.

Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc notes in a recent blog post that Windows 8 has a lot more to offer than what was already showcased, and that we’ll simply have to wait for it to reach new milestones to learn more on the matter.

Windows 8 is on the path to reach Beta status in late February, and more info on what the final release will be able should emerge at that time.

In the meantime, you can have a look at the Windows 8 presentation that Tami Reller delivered at CES 2012 via the video embedded below. She is introduced at the 01:32:00 mark.