14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 9 is becoming a very anticipated product, not only for users, but also for those involved in the IT industry who want more Windows XP users to dump the aging OS and move to a newer platform.
Dell, for example, hopes that Windows XP users will jump ship as soon as possible, and given the fact that such a transition usually required new hardware, the company’s PC sales would obviously experience a boost.
Dell's European end user computing marketing chief Margaret Franco told V3 in an interview that while Windows 8.1 is expected to increase consumer appeal for the modern platform, Windows 9 is very likely to drive the migration forward, at least in case it arrives in early 2015 as it’s now rumored.
“When Windows 9 comes out, we're also seeing a lot more interest around developing the transition strategy for their OS,” she said. “There is a pressure point in order to start accelerating OS migration because in April, that's when the support for XP ends. We're seeing much more interest around OS planning and strategy planning, such as finding out what the benefits of touch are.”
Microsoft is expected to break the news on Windows 9 in just a few months at the BUILD developer conference, while work on this new operating system is scheduled to start in late April.
If reports are true, then we should expect Windows 9 to be unveiled in April 2015, approximately one year after the company introduced the first major update for Windows 8.1.
Windows 9 should correct many of the issues found in Windows 8.1 and could bring back a Start Menu that would make the operating system more user-friendly. At the same time, Microsoft might also implement changes to allow desktop users to run Metro apps in separate windows.