The technology giants of today’s world aren’t content to sit in their own little corner, claiming small bits of territory at a time. Rather, they thrive as titans because they’re able to integrate their company’s vision and technologies across multiple fronts; Google is also Chrome is also the Cr48 is also Android, and Microsoft is also Bing is also Windows is also Xbox is also (arguably) Yahoo. To better integrate its different front, Microsoft is changing the way they approach operating systems with their newly announced Windows 8.
As reported by Mashable, our previous predictions of an ARM optimized OS from Microsoft were correct. The company will be developing their 8th full operating system with mobile users in mind, creating a system that can easily port to mobile devices. This new OS, tentatively called Windows 8, will support the x86 architecture of current processors in addition to ARM chips and SoCs (System on a Chip). Its ARM support will extend at least to NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm devices. This certainly means better performance on mobile, but it also may mean more than that.
Considering that smartphones and tablets are currently fighting their main battle on the application front, the possibility of making windows software easy to import to mobile devices based solely on the OS opens up a new world of possibilities. Yes, Apple’s impressive 300,000 apps will have increased by that time, and Android may well have surpassed them at their current rate of growth, but there are currently millions of software items for Windows (only half of which will destroy your computer).
Microsoft representative Steven Sinofsky stated, “We’re showing the flexibility and resiliency of Windows through the power of software and a commitment to world-class engineering.” He may not have gone far enough. Depending on the exact details, this may revolutionize our approach to mobile software.
