Windows 8 – a necessary gamble: Gartner
- 25 September, 2012 15:25
- Comments 3
Microsoft’s long awaited and often criticised Windows 8 operating system is a significant gamble, although a risk the company must take to remain ‘relevant’ in the mobility era, according to research firm, Gartner.
As consumer and worker behaviour has shifted from a centralised PC platform (the notebook or desktop) to an array of mobile devices where the PC is just one peer, Microsoft has lost traction in an evolved market, Gartner vice-president and analyst, Michael Silver, said.
Windows 8 is an attempt to address this issue through collaboration capabilities that cater for the spread of mobile devices.
“Microsoft’s approach is very different from Apple’s and Google’s, where phones and tablets have much more commonality than PCs and tablets,” Silver said. “This plays to Microsoft’s strength in PCs, leveraging it not only to enter the tablet market, but also to improve its share of the smartphone market.”
As such, Windows 8 will launch Microsoft’s RT era, which follows the NT era that began in 1993 and is only now starting to fade out, according to Gartner research vice-president, Steve Kleynhans, who believes that the “technology underlying Windows 8 will last a long, long time.”
At the same time, making radical changes to Windows poses a risk for Microsoft as organisations like to reduce technology risks by deploying mature, stable, well-supported products.
“Windows 8 has been released to manufacturing and will be formally launched in October, but the reality is that most organisations are still working on eliminating Windows XP and deploying Windows 7,” Silver said.
The fear is therefore whether Windows 8 will face the same fate as Vista, which Gartner said never gained significant success in corporate environments, and by extension, resulted in the cease of third party support.
Additional concern comes in the form of ‘metro-style’ user interface. While relevant for tablets, smartphone, and hybrids, the appropriateness of the approach on desktop and notebook machines is questionable.
Gartner said that if the operating system finds success on tablets, it will have many impacts on organisations despite the fact that some will want to remain on other platforms.
“As users gain more power, due to consumerisation, IT is less able to mandate that certain products be used or not used in their environment,” the firm said in a statement. “This makes it harder for IT to buy and support PCs the way they have for the past 20 years and may lead to more bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs. Organisations also need to device whether they want to create applications expressly for Windows 8 and Metro, write iOS applications, or something more neutral.”
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email ARN
- Follow ARN on twitter
- Choice and Control: Considerations for Developing Enterprise Cloud Strategies
- Modernizing Security for the Small and Mid-Sized Business – Recommendations for 2013 (Sponsored by McAfee)
- MSP Guides for effective Endpoint Management Solutions
- Smart Cloud Provisioning: Low Cost and highly Scalable Entry Point into Cloud Computing
- Cloud and Co-Location Solutions
- CITRIX SYNERGY ’13: Christiancen highlights the need for collaboration
- CITRIX SYNERGY ’13: Devices will change how people work, says Duursma
- Smartphone chips could replace server processors in HPC, researchers say
- iPhone 6 rumour rollup for the week ending May 24
- iPad 5 rumour rollup for the week ending May 23
-
Attack on Telenor was part of large cyberespionage operation with Indian origins: report
-
Box buys iOS app to improve its own
-
Growing mobile malware threat swirls (mostly) around Android
-
Barracuda Networks raises free capacity of Copy.com to 15GB
-
Coke gives peace a chance ( +16 photos)
Get exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events. 
Comments
I know
1
Yep there gamblers and they need help from the gambling helpline.
Jaffar Aly
2
I'm hoping that the hardware companies built bigger touch screen monitor which is as good if not better than the smartphone and tablet so that I can use Windows 8 OS in the office or at home with least keyboard/mouse usage..:)
curmet
3
I like Windows 8 and it's fine on touch and non touch. I have it on all my computers and It is a step up from Win7. If you say it's useless on desktop, you're retarded as it presents no handicap on non-touch devices. Instead of a list start menu, you have a tile one, with more easy of use and search. Just a load of pointless bitching going on.