14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will roll out the brand new Windows 8 later this month, but the company says that it already enjoys a great success, even if few testing versions have been released so far.
The new operating system received a billion hours of feedback telemetry, Microsoft said in a blog post trying to emphasize that Windows 8 is very likely to sell very well after its launch.
While no accurate figures have been provided to indeed prove that Windows 8 is such a successful product already, Microsoft’s CEO has repeatedly stated that the new operating system would sell in millions of copies from its very first months of availability.
Windows 8 will be released not only on traditional desktop computers, but also on other platforms, including tablets and mobile phones.
A dedicated version called Windows RT will be introduced on the company’s first tablet baptized Surface that’s going to be unveiled together with Windows 8 on October 25 in New York.
“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,” CEO Steve Ballmer said in an interview in early September, trying to emphasize that Windows 8 will still try to appeal to the desktop PC market.
Windows 8’s debut is at least as important as Windows 95’s, said Ballmer who also explained that the new OS incorporates a very wide range of improvements.
“We're trying to really re-imagine the world from the ground up with Windows 8. [...] And then people orient their development schedules around Windows 8 and its new properties and attributes,” the CEO stated.