It’s a total embarrassment, but less than a year after Microsoft finally “caught up” with Apple’s three year lead and released a modern, multitouch smartphone operating system in Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is having to do it again, this time having been caught with their pants down by the iPad.
Their solution? Windows 8, the next version of their desktop operating system, carefully optimized to support power-sipping ARM processors and skinned with a special, tablet-specific operating system. Now a report suggests that Microsoft will rush Windows 8 to market to make sure that the iPad 3 doesn’t eat Microsoft’s tablet lunch before they’ve even sat down to the table.
According to ZDNet, Microsoft has shifted their timetable to release to manufacturing the next Windows release from the end of 2012 to April 2012, putting Windows 8 tablets in consumer hands by no later than June or July.
It’s a good move for Microsoft to get a bonafide tablet optimized operating system to OEMs as quickly as possible, but not only do we personally have doubts that Windows 8 can hold a candle to iOS even in the short term, we wonder if June 2012 is soon enough.
Apple owns 97% of the US tablet market. How’s that number going to look once they release the iPad 3?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
