Ovum's oration and the Windows 8 debate

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 06 June 2011 11:22

Your IT - Home IT

Respected analyst firm Ovum says that while reports of Microsoft and Windows' 'imminent demise are somewhat over exaggerated', it notes that the somewhat tardy software maker still has a lot of work to prove that Windows 8 will rate.

With Apple launching its OS X 10.7 Lion, its iOS 5.0 and its iCloud service tomorrow (Australian time, 4am), and with Google making waves not only with Android OS 3.x Honeycomb and its Chrome OS notebooks, there's never been more interest and action around non-Microsoft operating systems than today.

While there are over a billion PCs worldwide, most of which are running Windows XP, Vista or 7, there are hundreds of millions of smartphones and several tens of millions of modern-day tablets, most of which have nothing to do with anything from MS.

Thus, while Microsoft's vision for a 'computer on every desk' was effectively achieved long ago, at least in the Western world, any visions it had of being the deliverer of computing technologies and power 'anywhere, anytime and on any device' have been seriously derailed by its ever more powerful competitors.

Even Linux has advanced and matured greatly over the last few years, making it easier than ever for those who wish to live Microsoft-free lives to actually do so.

But for all those who wish to live Microsoft-free lives, there are still hundreds of millions, if not more, who actually use Microsoft products, and like them, at least to some degree, and want to see Microsoft's real response to the Apples, Googles and Linuxes of the world.

That response thus far is a public demo of a Windows 8 build, an while it appears to be 12 to 18 months away at the earliest, something that seems an awfully long, long, long time away in today's very fast moving world,  the demo has at least been surprisingly good, blending the power of Windows 7 with the finger-friendliness and Apple-esque finesse of Windows Phone 7.

So, now that you have some of my thoughts on the topic, what have Ovum's orators had to say regarding Microsoft's upcoming OS?

All the details are on page two, please read on!