Infotech Lead India: Technology major Microsoft announced that its new operating system tailored for smartphones and tablets will be available on October 26.
Windows 8 will be available in 109 languages across 231 markets worldwide.
Microsoft has promised to make the new operating system available in August for computer, tablet or smartphone makers to build into hardware. It is simply the biggest deal for this company in at least 17 years, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week, referring to the time since the launch of the game-changing Windows 95 operating system.
Microsoft sold more than 630 million licenses of Windows 7, and that the software powers the majority of business desktop computers.
Windows 7 went public in October 2009. The latest version of the operating system that is the norm for personal computers will also be used on many smartphones and tablet computers, including Microsoft’s own Surface tablet to be launched this year.
The Redmond, Washington-based firm has gone on record stating that Surface tablets would hit the market when the Windows 8 operating system became publicly available. Windows 8 allows users readily to store and share personal data among various devices under the SkyDrive cloud computing service.
Rivals Apple and Google offer such services, which let people store digital data on servers in the Internet cloud and access files from devices of their choosing.
The new Microsoft system will support a wider range of devices, including touch and stylus-based smartphones and tablet PCs as well as desktop and laptop machines. Versions of Windows 8 have been tailored for chips used to power various mobile devices.
The software giant has been trying to expand its presence in the booming market for smartphones and tablets, which is currently dominated by Apple and Google.
