Windows 8 in April 2012? Could Be!

By  |  Monday, July 11, 2011 at 12:43 pm

ZDnet’s Mary Jo Foley is reporting on a rumor: Microsoft may be trying to finish up work on Windows 8 by April of next year. She thinks it’s plausible–or at least not obviously crazy. Me, too. For one thing, the conventional wisdom that the OS is likely to show up for the holiday 2012 season is, as far as I know, based more on history than on anyone knowing anything specific about Windows 8. For another, Microsoft has a huge incentive to get this thing out the door–not so much for its PC business, but for tablets, where it’s not yet really in the game and won’t be until Windows 8 is available. And Steven Sinofksy, the Microsoft exec in charge of Windows, has a pretty good track record for exceeding expectations when it comes to shipping products in a timely fashion. (Enough so that I think that anyone who parrots the classic “Microsoft never gets anything out the door” meme hasn’t been paying attention over the past few years.)

We should have a better sense of when Windows 8 is likely to show up once Microsoft holds its BUILD conference in September. That’s when the company will probably release some sort of preview or beta edition of the new OS and talk a little more about its timetable, without revealing all.

Me, I vote for Microsoft taking its own sweet time. A bunch of companies have already proven that it’s a bad idea to rush out devices based on tablet operating systems that aren’t fully cooked yet. And with the possible exception of Samsung, no company has established itself as a serious ongoing competitor to the iPad. Which means that a wonderful Windows 8 that appears late in 2012 might have a better chance of being a big deal than a so-so one that makes a surprisingly early debut.

 
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7 Comments For This Post

  1. Kobus Says:

    Love the Layout,
    Cant wait!!!

  2. Avro Says:

    What about Windows Phone 7 taking forever?

  3. dholyer Says:

    It does not matter if Win8 comes out early or late, the true test is how much will the buys be needed to debug it, and most likely for free. And in doing so it will save them millions, but we us users see any tester/debugger discount. In this free market world (I think is is still trying to be a free market world) those odds of a discount are as equal as a balanced budget law, and that would remove the center of power rom them to us.

    Just remember for there to be a desire for a change in the power structure, some if not many have to suffer in the first place. And Bill Gates may have in the 70's but he picked the winners, and his bank book proves this.

  4. SirFatty Says:

    I'm not sure why I should care? Windows 7 is working great for me…. there has to be a compelling reason, and as of yet I have not heard one.

  5. Eric Says:

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  6. Microsoft project Says:

    Great post. I like your work. I will read more your post.

  7. Video maker Says:

    layout is awesome but do you think that they can complete it in 2012 ?
    I do not think soo !