Windows 8: Do or die for Microsoft

Could Microsoft be cool again?

It may come as a surprise to some, but yes. Its upcoming release of Windows 8 — expected to hit retail shelves and preloaded PCs later this year — is nothing short of a bet-the-company product, and an initial peek at the consumer preview of the operating system shows flashes of innovation that confirm the company is on something of a roll.

First, the good stuff: Installation of the consumer preview of the upcoming operating system on a close-to-barebones four-year-old laptop was as close to stress-free as can be. The geriatric hardware that could barely handle Vista now sails under Windows 8. The new interface, based largely on the Metro environment at the core of Microsoft's well-received Windows Phone software, is impressive, with a slick new approach to usability that finally leapfrogs Windows past the same old mouse-on-desktop paradigm that's dominated the landscape since Windows 95.

The downside? It's a jarringly different approach to computing that could throw off the legions of users who've had almost 17 years to get used to a given way of working. The new operating system is a two-faced creature designed to simultaneously power traditional mouse-and-keyboard-driven PCs as well as touch-enabled tablets. Even more ambitious: Windows 8 will be released in two flavours: One for computers powered by Intel x86 processors, and another for mobile devices based on ARM architecture. It's an ambitious roadmap even for a company with Microsoft's depth of resources.

Will consumers grow with the product?

Being all things to all people will force significant change on the user front, as the traditional desktop at the core of Windows 7 simply isn't enough in a world of diversified hardware. To get the most out of Windows 8 requires users to learn new keyboard shortcuts, mouse conventions and gestures as they unlearn old habits like dropping random files onto an infinitely configurable desktop.

The new Windows App Store moves Microsoft into an iTunes App Store-like world, where finding, downloading and installing software is a tightly controlled process: Easy if you've grown up on iOS; not so easy if you're a hardcore IT type with a more traditional view of software. Even more challenging for those who like things the way they are: x86-based Windows 8 will continue to support legacy software, but Windows 8 on ARM-based tablets and mobile devices will reportedly be legacy-free. How that plays out in the minds of corporate buyers remains to be seen.

Forced to innovate

Either way, it's clear Microsoft had no choice but to break with convention. In a world where the PC is no longer the only game in town, where tablets are nipping at the market share of more traditional machines and Microsoft's operating system and productivity software cash cows risk riding into a fading sunset unless the company plots a different path, Windows 8 needed to be far more than a refreshed piece of code.

It needed to leapfrog the company beyond its traditional platform roots and establish it as a serious player in the emerging mobile space. Apple's iOS and Google's Android have redefined computing and, in the process, left Microsoft behind. Windows and Office may dominate traditional PC platforms, but as consumers and businesses gradually shift resources to alternative devices and form factors, Microsoft's absence from the scene clearly represented — and continues to represent — the most serious threat to the company's future.

As the stock has languished for much of the last decade, CEO Steve Ballmer has deservedly taken the lion's share of heat for the company's failure to get ahead of the market transition. While his contention that PCs will remain relevant productivity workhorses for some time to come is largely valid, it's equally true that growth-focused investors aren't interested in Microsoft continuing to milk legacy revenue streams indefinitely.

Windows 8 is the latest sign to investors that Microsoft is ready to treat mobility as more than a mere appendage to its operating system and productivity software businesses. The release of Windows Phone in 2010 followed closely by the partnership with Nokia to bring devices powered by the critically well-received mobile operating system to market has returned Microsoft to a market it had failed to crack with an earlier series of half-baked mobile offerings like Windows CE, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile.

In virtually every respect, Microsoft has swung for the fences and in virtually every respect, the high degree of polish on what is usually a rough piece of early code signifies how seriously the company intends to play the game. Steve Ballmer has staked his career and the company's future on a radical new operating system that aims to make Microsoft relevant in both the traditional PC and emerging mobile/tablet spaces. Investors who've bumped the share price up to nearly 10-year highs since November are already weighing in. Buyers will get their chance sometime this autumn.

Carmi Levy is a London, Ont.-based independent technology analyst and journalist. The opinions expressed are his own. carmilevy@yahoo.ca