14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is keeping mum on the evolution of Windows Live, but Wave 5 of the suite of Cloud applications and services is being developed in parallel with the next version of Windows.
In fact, new Windows Live releases have been strongly connected with fresh Windows versions, and it’s not likely that Windows Live Wave 5 and Windows 8 will make an exception to this rule.
Having already introduced Windows Live 2011 / Wave 4 for some time now, Dharmesh Mehta, director of Windows and Windows Live Division, talked a bit about the evolution of Hotmail and SkyDrive in 2011 as well as in 2012.
“Hotmail has already had eight meaningful releases. These are big partner integrations, big speed improvements and big sets of new calendar integrations; meaningful features that we think lots of people are going to use and we've really changed the release approach,” Mehta said.
“On SkyDrive there's been a big improvement in (what I call) making that a more modern app – betting on HTML 5, improving performance, changing the layout, making pictures just beautiful, instant on and things like that, that change that from an app that used to be relatively functional to a thing that's a lot more powerful and exciting...."
2012 is also the year when by all accounts, Windows 8 will be released to customers worldwide. Even with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft has delivered hints that it’s working to make services behave more like native apps.
Windows 8 and IE10 will only make offerings such as Hotmail and SkyDrive feel right at home on next-generation devices. Mehta also discussed Hotmail Wave 5 and SkyDrive Wave 5, but in general terms.
“In Hotmail, we get this product to be just amazing where it does everything basic and is a requirement, but what about all these things that just delight me,” he noted.
“In SkyDrive it's less about a direct competitor and we talk about how we define that cloud, that anywhere access - anytime - from any device, and just delivering that in a way that's better and ahead of pretty much anyone else...."