14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 will be released soon and while Microsoft has very high expectations, analysts emphasize that the new operating system is quite a risky product for the company.
The wide range of radical changes is the main reason why customers may stay away from the product, analyst house Gartner revealed in a press release, while also explaining that Microsoft is trying to step into the world of tablets and mobile phones with a completely different strategy than Apple.
“With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to address the excitement of the tablet market by adding a tablet interface to Windows,” Michael Silver, vice president and analyst at Gartner, said.
“Microsoft’s approach is very different from Apple’s and Google’s, where phones and tablets have much more commonality than PCs and tablets,” he added.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, on the other hand, is very confident that Windows 8 will be a huge hit and even compared it to Windows 95 in terms of innovations. It will change the word, said Ballmer in an interview with The Seattle Times a few weeks ago.
Windows 95 is “the biggest thing in the last 20 years until now,” Ballmer explained, and Windows 8 will be at least as important as this OS version.
“There's going to be close to 400 million PCs sold in the next year, which makes it a big market. And whether it's 405 (million) or 395 (million), it's a big market, and Windows 8 will propel that volume,” he told the newspaper.
Microsoft will unveil the new Windows 8 OS on October 25 in New York and the operating system will also be available on tablets and mobile phones, with the Redmond-based technology company planning to launch its first tablet next month.