Microsoft launches Windows 8 preview

IT giant Microsoft delivered its answer to Google and Apple, through a brand new-generation Windows operating system designed to run seamlessly on computers and transportable tablet devices.

"Windows 8 is a generational change inside the Windows operating system," said Windows president Steven Sinofsky.

"It's Windows reimagined," he added, launching the patron preview of the operating system on the world's biggest mobile fair in Barcelona.

The operating system is Microsoft's riposte to Google's Android platform and Apple, which has dominated the tablet promote it ignited with the discharge of the iPad.

Like its two competitors, Microsoft is adopting the "app" style in its reinvented operating system.

Unlike previous generations of Windows, which has a taskbar pulling up a catalogue of software, the newest version has a variety of applications or "apps" tiled at the start page.

For devices with touchscreens, apps are selected or moved around inside the same way as on a smartphone - by hand, swiping to modify between pages or screens, pinching to enlarge or shrink and tapping to pick.

For those without touchscreens, the identical may very well be done using the drag and drop functions, or clicks of a mouse.

"Apps bring to life the operating system. The more apps you have got, the easier your experience," said Sinofsky.

In the event you have several devices, they are going to be connected through a "cloud", a resource that pools a user's data online as opposed to on a user's computer disc.

"This connection through cloud is important in how we considered Windows 8 firstly," said Sinofsky.

It enabled what's seen at the screen of a tablet device to be replicated on an average computer if the user signs in with a Windows ID.

Microsoft also announced at the test opening of its Windows Store, where users should purchase apps online.

Even though it is a heavyweight within the computer market, Microsoft has lagged behind in getting a share of the smartphone and tablet pie.

Windows has teamed up with Finnish giant Nokia to make smartphones to check out to win back a share.

On Monday, Nokia announced that Windows phones have now been made compatible with Chinese mobile operating networks, allowing it to bring its smartphones to that huge market.

It can also challenge the dominance of BlackBerry within the corporate market, as companies may prefer to choose Windows as their computers are already running on that operating system.

"We have got a wild card in this subject because we're very active in enterprises' IT systems" and corporations "realise that it might provide better integration and a greater experience," Microsoft's mobility division director Laurent Schloesser said.

"The enterprise market will take in Windows Phone," he added.

Gartner research analyst Roberta Cozza said that it remained unclear how Windows 8 will be integrated with the Windows phone.

"However it will certainly make the user interface (UI) that we've got seen today more knowledgeable about consumers.

"The tiled UI is new but when it gets adopted on PCs and tablets, this may resonate more and become more familiar to users, and this would in turn help the Windows phone," she added.

The Windows 8 preview is obtainable for download at preview.windows.com

In the course of the preview period, apps at the Windows Store may be available to users to check for free of charge.

- AFP

By Hui Min Neo