There is change in the air at Microsoft. Signs of a fundamental shift from a software company to a devices and services company, as mandated by Microsoft management team, are already showing. Company officials are openly talking about the next release of Windows (Blue) and the next Windows Developer conference (Build 2013).
On the same day, Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer was celebrating his 57th birthday, an early build of Windows Blue, Microsoft’s next update of Windows, was leaked online. The leaked Windows Blue build, numbered 9364, was a partner version compiled on March 15.
According to sources, Intel’s Haswell chip (Intel’s upcoming latest generation chip) and Windows Blue (an upcoming upgrade of Windows 8 operating system) are tied together. The duo will work together to deliver high performance with huge battery life improvements.
Microsoft has been trying hard to amass a greater number of apps for its Windows Store and Windows Phone Store. Currently, the company’s online marketplaces stand well behind both App Store and Google Play. In a bid to catch up, Microsoft is now offering Windows developers $100 on every new, approved app.
Google has been very successful with the Android in mobile OS market. However, Chrome OS hasn’t been very successful in stirring competition in the market. It is yet to be competitive enough to stand a chance against major operating systems from Microsoft or Apple. Taiwan-based notebook ODMs and vendors expect Google’s Chrome OS to be struggling for the next 1-2 years to gain a competitive edge against Windows.
Microsoft’s mobile platform, Windows Phone, hasn’t exactly been a success. The company was able to trigger the interest of many with Windows Phone 8, but handsets running the latest release haven’t garnered significant sales. Now, Microsoft has apparently decided to abandon support for Windows Phone 8 by July, 2014.
Last year in May, Microsoft released Kinect SDK for Windows version 1.5. Long time passed, but Microsoft hasn’t released any update to that version, which people have been waiting for long time. Finally, the waiting is over. Microsoft has announced that it would release an update to the Kinect SDK for Windows on Monday, March 18.
Since Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are both already released, it is only natural to assume that Microsoft must be working on the next iterations of both operating systems. This assumption has now been substantiated, thanks to a few Microsoft-related posts and LinkedIn profiles, which mention both Windows 9 and Windows Phone 9.