The OS, scheduled to be released next fall, is winning praise for its design — a rarity for Microsoft products. Windows 8 sports a colorful, tile-based tablet interface called “Metro,” similar to the company’s Windows Phone 7 smart phone operating system.
“When these tablets are in stores next to iPads, I think they’ll have a huge design advantage,” said Paul Thurrott, a technology analyst for Penton Media. “They’re much more beautiful.”
Speaking of iPads, Windows 8’s hybrid nature somewhat resembles Apple’s latest update to its operating system, Mac OS X Lion, which also mixes full-screen, tablet-like functions with a classic desktop mode. Thurrott said Microsoft may have to tweak the desktop side before the official release.
“There’s a weird disconnect between the colorful, fun, Metro side, and then you have the old, drab, boring desktop,” he said.
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Cem Ozkaynak, an analyst at Boston securities research start-up Trefis, said Windows 8 could boost Microsoft’s market share in the smartphone business, dominated by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.
“Microsoft is taking a lead position in business, tying its desktop offering to its mobile offering via Windows 8,” he said. “That could be attractive to a lot of businesses a year from now when they’re updating not only their PCs, but their phones as well.”
James Daniels, senior software developer at Brookline’s Raizlabs, said it would wait until a more polished version of the operating system is released — closer to its sale date — to start developing apps for it. But he said Windows 8 gives the independent developer community an opportunity with its inclusion of an application marketplace like the Apple App Store, or the Android Market. Even better, Microsoft isn’t taking a cut of sales, like Apple and Google.
“They’re sitting on hoards of cash,” Daniels said. “They’re not worried about making money, they’re worried about staying relevant.”
Source : http://news.bostonherald.com/jobfind/news/technology/view/2011_0918windows_8_wows_experts_set_for_release_in_2012os_mimics_smartphone/srvc=home&position=also
