Microsoft Prepares Windows 8 for Battle Against the iPad

Microsoft is set to unveil the next-generation of Windows tomorrow. The new operating system, currently known as Windows 8, is the tech giant’s attempt to regain ground that it has lost to Apple, which surpassed Microsoft last year as the world’s most valuable company.

It isn’t the MacBook or Mac OS X Lion that has Microsoft executives worried, though. It’s the sheer dominance of the iPad.

The iPad hasn’t skipped a beat since its debut last year. Thanks to Apple’s ingenuity, a shockingly low starting price and a strong marketing campaign, the device has sold more than 25 million units in less than a year-and-a-half. More importantly, it has defined a whole new category of consumer devices. And it dominates that category with an iron fist.

iPad competitors have come and gone, but none have been able to make a dent in the iPad’s rapid growth. HP has given up on the TouchPad, the RIM Playbook has underperformed and countless Android tablets have fallen by the wayside. Nothing has emerged as the alternative to the iPad.

This presents a dangerous problem and an opportunity for Microsoft. The tech giant cannot let Apple monopolize the tablet market like Microsoft did with the desktop OS. That would seal its fate as a technology power destined to diminish into a shell of its former self.

There is a need for a legitimate alternative to the iPad, though, and the company that gets it right will emerge in a strong position to take a big piece of the fast-growing tablet market. Success in tablets would boost Microsoft’s profits, ease investor concerns about the shrinking PC market and set it up for future growth.

That’s where Windows 8 comes in. The next-generation OS, which will be unveiled at the Microsoft Build conference on Tuesday, is not only designed for PCs, but it is also made to work on tablets as well. We got a taste of its touchscreen capabilities at the D9 conference earlier this year, but we expect Microsoft to unveil the first Windows 8 tablet during Tuesday’s keynote. Our sources tell us that the device will be manufactured by Samsung, but has been designed meticulously by Microsoft in an attempt to create the iPad alternative.

Will Microsoft’s gamble work? Can the company create an OS that works seamlessly on both tablets and PCs? And most of all, will it be useful enough, different enough and cheap enough to give the iPad a run for its money?

We’ll be closer to knowing the answers to those questions on Tuesday morning. The tablet wars are about to begin in earnest.

Microsoft confirms app store in Windows 8

Microsoft has begun talking about Windows 8 in general terms, reprising a blog-based strategy that it used in the year-long run-up to Windows 7.

Microsoft kicked off the "Building Windows 8" blog on Monday, almost exactly three years after the debut of

a similar blog, "Engineering Windows 7," that the company used to beat the drum.

Both blogs were launched by Steven Sinofsky, the president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division.

Yesterday, Sinofsky essentially confirmed that Windows 8 will support an app store when he listed it as the title of one of 35 teams working on the operating system.

Although Microsoft has publicly discussed a few bits of Windows 8, it has said nothing about integrating a download store with the new OS until now. Several Windows bloggers, however, reported finding signs of one in leaked previews of the OS several months ago.

Sinofsky's disclosure of an app store in Windows 8 would not be a surprise Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group who two months ago said, "It's clear that Microsoft will on some level go to an app store in Windows 8."

The question Baker had then was whether Microsoft's app store would be a curated market -- the approach Apple has taken with its iOS App Store, and to a lesser extent, the Mac App Store for systems running Mac OS X.

Baker thought not. "I think there will always be ways for retailers and OEMs to participate in software sales. Microsoft is fundamentally a good channel partner," he said.

The term "App Store" is a bone of contention between Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, with the first two arguing that the description isn't worthy of trademark protection. Apple has disputed that.

In January, Microsoft asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to deny Apple's trademark application, arguing that because the term is generic, competitors should be able to use it.

According to documents published by the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, both Apple and Microsoft have hired linguistic experts to argue that "App Store" is not a generic term (Apple's position) and that it is (Microsoft's).

The last document posted by the Appeal Board was an early-April request by Apple for oral arguments.

Amazon and Apple have been battling in federal court over the term since March, when the latter accused Amazon of trademark infringement. Amazon uses the term "Appstore" to describe its Android-only download market.

Sinofsky listed a total of 35 teams that are working on Windows 8, and some of his labels hinted at other core changes, ranging from a hypervisor -- or virtual machine manager -- within the client edition to improvements in Windows Update, Microsoft's consumer update service.

A majority of the Windows 8 teams had no corresponding group during Windows 7's development, while some of the latter's -- including Media Center and Applets and Gadgets -- don't appear in the Windows 8 list.

Microsoft has been mum about a release schedule for Windows 8, but the timing of Sinofsky's return to blogging -- three years and one day after the start of the similar effort for Windows 7 -- may hint at a parallel timetable. If that's the case, Windows 8 would launch in October 2012.

The company will reveal more about Windows 8, and perhaps release a preview version of the OS, at its Build conference, which will begin Sept. 13 in Anaheim, Calif.

First Windows 'Mango' Phone Unveiled

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.

The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months, that Microsoft hopes will signal its

return to the smartphone market as a serious player. (Video of the new phone and its launch is available on YouTube.)

If that wish sounds familiar, it is. This time last year the company was hoping the first version of the Windows Phone 7 would accomplish the same thing. But that didn't happen.Despite getting several thousand applications and generally positive reviews, the new platform, which replaced Windows Mobile, was relegated to the sidelines by a rush of new Android devices and updates to Apple's iPhone.

Far from boosting its market share, the introduction of the new operating system saw Microsoft lose share.

Microsoft captured 2.7 percent of the smartphone market during the first quarter of 2011, according to IDC. But a year earlier during the first quarter of 2010, its market share was 7.1 percent, the market research company said. In terms of handsets shipped, those with Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile fell from 3.9 million to 2.8 million phones in the two periods."We've gone from very small to....very small," quipped Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer earlier this month on his company's lackluster performance.

Mango, officially Windows Phone 7.5, adds some 500 improvements to the Windows Phone 7 platform, according to the company. They include an e-mail "conversation view" that is said to make long e-mail discussions more efficient, a "threads" feature that brings together text, instant messages and Facebook chat, and Internet Explorer 9 for faster Web browsing.

"Mango is a substantial improvement bringing multi-tasking and other needed features," Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC, wrote in an email. "This really begins to close the gap and in a couple of ways exceeds its competitors."

Some of those improvements can be seen in the new handset, the IS12T, which will be available in Japan only. Built by Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications, the phone will be available in September or after. No price was disclosed.

The company is one of several partners Microsoft is working with on Mango handsets. Others include Taiwan's Acer and China's ZTE, but perhaps the most awaited phones will be from Nokia.

The Finnish cell phone maker threw its weight behind Windows Phone 7 earlier this year when it announced a wide ranging agreement with Microsoft to collaborate on future handsets and technologies.

Nokia is losing market share to aggressive competitors, but it remains one of the world's largest manufacturers of smart phones, so it has the potential to help Microsoft shift the market.

he launch of the phone came just hours after Microsoft signed off on the operating system and declared it ready to be installed in consumer handsets. That should mean additional phones will get launched in the coming weeks.

"Now everything rests on the diversity of the device portfolio that begins to emerge," said Hilwa.

Looking ahead, IDC predicts Windows-based smartphones will account for 20 percent of the market in 2015, making them second only to Android.

"Microsoft will claw its way to success and market share over the next couple of releases," the analyst said. "Its chances will be helped significantly with a successful Windows 8 release in 2012 which will create synergies between the PC and the phone in new ways."

For Japanese consumers, the IS12T phone has a 3.7-inch screen and a 13.2 megapixel camera. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are included in the CDMA-based phone. It weighs 113 grams and Fujitsu Toshiba says the battery should provide more than 11 days on standby and more than 6 hours of talk time.

The phone has 32GB of memory and is waterproof with an IPX5 rating.

Why Google + social networking = electric wok

A spectre is haunting the technology industry. It is called "electric wok syndrome" and it mainly afflicts engineers and those who invest in their fantasies. The condition takes its name from the fact that nobody in his or her right mind would want an electric wok. But because it is possible to make such things, they are

manufactured, regardless of whether or not there is a need for them. The syndrome is thus characterised by the mantra: "Technology is the answer; now what was that question again?"
The past two weeks have seen a virulent outbreak of the syndrome. It was triggered by Google's limited release of a new "service" called Google+ which was widely interpreted as the search giant's first serious foray into social networking. Initially available by invitation only to a select group of geeks and early adopters (which did not at first include this columnist), it has been the source of frenzied speculation in the blogosphere, not least because it implied that Google was finally getting ready to take on the 800lb gorilla of social networking, Facebook.
In its "limited field test" form, Google+ has five components: Circles, Hangouts, Instant Upload, Huddle and Sparks. The blurb explains that Circles allows you to assign your friends in an arbitrary number of "circles" – family, colleagues, poker buddies etc – "just like real life". Hangouts brings "the unplanned meet-up to the web for the first time. Let specific buddies (or entire circles) know you're hanging out and see who drops by for a face-to-face chat". It is, apparently, "the next best thing until teleportation arrives". (I am not making this up.) Instant Upload means that your pictures and videos upload automatically to a private album, ready for sharing. Huddle is group text-chat, which apparently will be very useful "when you're trying to get six different people to decide on a movie". And Sparks is some kind of RSS feed on steroids. "Tell Sparks what you're into and it will send you stuff it thinks you will like."
To read some of the excited commentary on these innovations you'd think that teleportation had actually arrived. Watching people salivate over Circles and, er, Hangouts helps to explain how the ancient Egyptians came to worship an insect. It also reminds one of the astonishing power that large corporations possess to create a reality-distortion field around them which, among other things, disables the capacity to believe that these organisations might sometimes do very silly things indeed. There was a time, for example, when Microsoft's every move was greeted with the hushed reverence with which devout Catholics greet papal utterances. Grown men swoon whenever Steve Jobs appears in public. And it's not that long ago since Google launched its incomprehensible "Wave" service (now defunct) and an idiotic venture called "Buzz" – things that excited geeks but left the rest of the world unmoved.
So the question du jour is whether Google+ is an electric wok or not. Initial reactions suggest that it is. First of all, it's engagingly flaky so that even simple tasks such as setting up a user profile are formidably difficult, as my Guardian colleague Charles Arthur reported in his hilarious, and admirably acerbic, review in which he describes his attempts to create a profile and upload a photograph. "If Google were a start-up," he concluded, "it would have lost precisely 99.999% of every would-be joiner. Getting photos uploaded is the most fundamental thing you have to be able to do and every start-up knows it." He's right: geeks and early adopters revel in difficulty; ordinary users abominate it. They like stuff that just works.
Charles Arthur's experience is by no means unique. What it suggests is that Google+ is what software people call a "closed beta" – ie a release that is OK for techies but not suitable for normal people. And that's fine. It will improve over time. But the thing about social networking is that it's now a zero-sum game because it depends on a very scarce resource – its users' time and attention. Facebook's users already spend a lot of time on the site, time that won't be available to Google+, no matter how slick its photo-upload process becomes.
Which is a pity, because Facebook needs some real competition. Last week, it announced some new features that look suspiciously like bits of Google +. And it let slip that it has reached 750 million users. It's beginning to look like the winner that took all. Oh, and if you really want an electric wok, you can get one from Amazon. It even comes with a tempura rack and a spatula.

Microsoft's Windows 8 on ARM Will Lack Legacy Apps: Intel Exec

An Intel executive suggested during a company investor meeting May 18 that Microsoft will manufacture different versions of its upcoming “Windows 8” tailored for Intel and ARM-based devices. That echoes statements made by Microsoft executives at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Bloomberg reports that Renee James, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Software and Services Group, told those assembled at the meeting that the next version of Windows for Intel chips will run programs designed for previous versions of the operating system, while the ARM-based versions will not. Intel will apparently offer its own Windows-supporting architecture for mobile devices such as tablets.

Rumors suggest that Microsoft will release Windows 8—as it’s been termed, at least for brevity’s sake, by the media and analysts—sometime in 2012. In April, bloggers Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott dissected various features of what they called an early operating-system build on Rivera’s Within Windows blog. According to those postings, the next version of Windows could incorporate an Office-style ribbon interface into Windows Explorer, complete with tools for viewing libraries and manipulating images. The bloggers also included a screenshot of an early device-unlock window, done in the “Metro” design style already present in Windows Phone.

Whether those elements eventually find their way into Windows 8 remains to be seen. What is confirmable, though, is that it will support SoC (system-on-a-chip) architecture, in particular ARM-based systems from partners such as Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments. That would give Microsoft the ability to port Windows 8 onto tablets and other mobile form factors powered by ARM offerings. And that, in turn, would allow Microsoft to finally establish a beachhead in a tablet market currently dominated by Apple’s iPad and the growing family of Google Android devices.

Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division, suggested at CES 2011 that “under the hood there are a ton of differences that need to be worked through” with regard to SoC-supported Windows. Nonetheless, he added, “Windows has proven remarkably flexible at this under-the-hood sort of stuff.”

If an ARM-based Windows 8 can’t run legacy applications, that could potentially hobble adoption among those businesses and consumers—and ultimately benefit Intel, which has a long history of supporting Windows on a variety of devices. But as a high-ranking Intel executive, James also has a vested interest in promoting her company’s offerings over those of its rival.

Windows 7 managed to sidestep some “last ditch” compatibility issues with certain Windows XP applications via Windows XP mode, which ran those applications within a virtual environment; the question is whether a similar solution could solve compatibility issues with the next version of Windows, despite James’ insistence to the contrary.

Whatever the final capabilities of the next Windows, though, the emphasis on both ARM and Intel for its hardware backbone suggests that Microsoft is making a very big play—not only to hold its ground in traditional PCs, but also to take its own piece of the burgeoning tablet market.