Microsoft alum: Windows 8 "a much deadlier assault weapon" than Windows 7

January 24, 2013

Windows 8 is just what Microsoft needs to take advantage of the ongoing irreversible shift from PCs to handheld devices including iPads, iPhones, and other form factors yet to be designed, according to the company's former OEM chief. Just as Windows 7 won instant popularity after the debacle of Vista, Windows 8 is poised to capture business from phone and tablet leaders such as Apple, only to greater effect, says Joachim Kempin, former Microsoft senior vice president in charge of OEMs who worked for the company from 1983 to 2002. "Windows 7 spearheaded a comparably small rejuvenation," Kempin says in his just-released book "Resolve and Fortitude: Microsoft's Secret Power Broker Breaks his Silence". "I predict Windows 8 is readied as a much deadlier assault weapon." Kempin says the main intent of Windows 8 is to push the operating system into low-powered mobile devices running ARM processors vs. those running traditional x86 chips. He says that when Microsoft introduced Windows 8 nearly two years ago it "flabbergasted the IT world by running on a tablet powered by NVidia's ARM-based CPU. I consider this move to ARM a scale 9 earthquake and wake-up call for MS's longtime allies Intel and AMD." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/012313-microsoft-windows8-266082.html