14 DAY TRIAL // A recently-published report indicated that Microsoft’s 2015 Windows release will be called “Threshold” and will be aimed at bringing the company’s platforms together, including desktops, tablets, and mobile phones.
Now Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet writes that Microsoft could even rename all its operating systems to simply “Windows,” with the major difference coming down to user interface and user experience.
The goal with this new Windows version, the same report adds, is to make all operating systems share more components, including file system, driver model, app store, services, and memory manager.
Microsoft, on the other hand, plans to bring more devices to the market, including smaller tablets running Windows 8.1, as well as a new platform for mobile phones called Windows Phone 8.1. While the company could indeed call these versions Windows, they will be different mostly because of the experience offered to the user based on the form factor.
Redmond’s purpose, on the other hand, is to offer a unified experience across all devices, so expect a common app store and other similarities that will be based on powerful synchronization services and cloud tech.
Julie Larson-Green, executive vice president of Devices and Studios, revealed in a recent statement that Microsoft might indeed merge Windows RT with another platform, hinting that more modifications are very likely to be implemented in the Windows range.
While she didn’t say it clearly, Windows RT could be merged with Windows Phone, in an attempt to keep just one mobile operating system on the market and make more apps available to users.
“We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three. We do think there's a world where there is a more mobile operating system that doesn't have the risks to battery life, or the risks to security. But, it also comes at the cost of flexibility. So we believe in that vision and that direction and we're continuing down that path,” she noted.