Windows 8 Very Important to Microsoft

Windows 8 is very important to Microsoft, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer stressed during a Q&A at the Rotary Club of Seattle on June 29th, 2011.

Microsoft’s CEO declined to comment on the size and scale of the investment that are going into developing the next major iteration of Windows. And most probably, the Redmond company will never detail the resources necessary for building Windows 8.

But just consider that Windows continues to be the heart of the software giant, when attempting to guess the massive size and the scope of the investment.

“How important is it? We basically increasingly only are working on things which are actually very important. I would say the day and age of sort of idle, kind of smaller things is a little bit behind us. There were sort of more small probes; we're putting bigger, more energy behind fewer things than we have historically,” Ballmer said.

“I can't say that about Windows in general. Windows is -- you know, if you cut me open and saw what was inside, Windows, it's just sort of Windows, Windows, Windows. Our company was born on the back of Windows. Windows underpins a huge percentage of all of our success, all of our profitability, all of the important things that we do. So, how important is it? Very would be a very fair answer,” he added.

As far as I’m concerned, there are a few reasons why Windows 8 should be considered crucial, and not just very important to Microsoft.

With Windows 8, the Redmond company finally has the chance to do natural user interface (NUI) + graphical user interface (GUI) right. According to the sneak peeks at the platform so far, the software giant seems to be on the right track.

Windows 8 is also Microsoft’s best bet to conquer markets on which Windows has been mildly or little successful, or not at all. This is the OS that will go against Android and iOS on tablets/slates and additional next generation form factors. It needs to be at the top of its game.

Revolutionary. Innovative. Windows 7 was many things, but it was neither of the two just mentioned. Windows 8 is the right catalyst to take Windows to an entirely other level.