The tweets go as follows:

WP8 running smoothly on protos. The key point for corporate users is tight ms office integration in OS

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

WP8 aka Apollo also have a very smart way to sync data with tablets and keep all data up to date. Plus skydrive here

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

Win8 will be available in three reference design – for each one dedicated chipset vendor. Later they will launch more chipsets

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

WP8 tablets is near perfect in terms of hardware. Right now they are on par with android/iPad. Same specs or almost the same

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

About reference design of win8 I couldn’t share a lot of info :( sorry

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

Win8 tablets – end user price on the same level as android flagship devices, but vendor margin is lower (licensee fee for ms; same hw)

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

MS main focus – tablets, second one – phones. That’s in mobile space. We will see interesting proposal – tablet plus phone in one bundle

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

I said it several times before but going to repeat once more. You couldn’t get wp8 for mango devices. But it will be some kind of update

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

It’s to early for a15 CPU. Wait CES 2013 and tegra4. Wait February 2013 and HTC/LG. wait may and sgs4. But Huawei show it in nov/dec12

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

Showing a15 products it’s a kind of pr for Huawei, they wont deliver product on shelf before first half of 2013

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

Beginning from Apollo and win8 MS will have for a first time real ecosystem and connected vertically devices. That’s good thing

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

Another good thing that wp8 handsets will be more interesting for developers. More info coming in next months :)

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) April 26, 2012

As none of this has come from directly from Microsoft none of it can be treated as fact but some of this backs up rumours and some of this is new and it should all be taken with a pinch of salt. So the key bits of information from these tweets seem to be that the hardware for Windows 8 should be good, apparently iPad quality good which is what Microsoft needs. At launch there will only be three different chipsets available for the three main chip manufactures, however this will increase over time. Windows 8 tablets are at the same price points as Android tablets however the OEM gets less profit due to the license fee.

Office is going to be shown to enterprise customers as a reason for getting a Windows Phone and SkyDrive will be added to the mix to offer a seamless experience across all of a users Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices. In addition to SkyDrive Windows Phone 8 which will have some “smart ways” to sync with Windows 8 devices. This will lead Microsoft to offer tablet and phone bundles when the two come to market with Microsoft’s main focus being on selling tablets.

Murtazin says that Windows Phone 7 Mango devices wont be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 but there will be updates for Windows Phone 7, much like I think will happen. Apparently come CES 2013 we might see some devices packing ARM’s A15 chip and Tegra 4 however it’s thought that Huawei will show off a device before the end of 2012 with the new powerful internals. It’s unclear if this is for Windows Phone 8 or Windows RT devices. There will also be new features for developers to take advantage of in Windows Phone 8 which will be announced in the coming months.

I think it is good to see that Murtazin has recognised that Apollo and Windows 8 will be a single ecosystem that offers vertical devices within it. This further backs up rumours that Windows Phone 8 will be based on Windows 8 and that apps will run on both platforms.

Now this news is a massive case of good and bad. The good news is that Microsoft has seen sense and has reduced the number of SKUs available for its operating system to, practically, 2 (Windows RT will be an entirely different thing). This is great and should reduce the confusion in the market and help consumers get the right version for them. I imagine it will still be easy for people to upgrade their version of Windows if they feel they need features from Pro that they didn’t initially anticipate.

However, for me, the bad news comes from the Windows RT choice of name, to me it’s just backwards as should actually be Windows Metro.

There are quite a few reasons why Windows RT is a silly name to have chosen, especially since Microsoft hasn’t come out and given its reasoning for the name. At least with Windows XP the “XP” stood for experience, what does RT even mean? If it’s runtime then it’s ridiculous to have called the consumer facing name of the operating system after something so boring to consumers. Let’s not forget the main purpose of Windows RT on ARM, it’s to appeal to consumers, it’s got to compete with the iPad on that front. What do you think the RT stands for? I am wondering if it stands for “Really Trippy” as I can only assume the people who selected this name were tripping out.

Assuming we don’t really need to know where the “RT” part of the name has come from we then have to consider what consumers will think of the name. The name certainly doesn’t sound cool, it’s not aspirational and it’s certainly not something people are going to want to say. iOS on the other hand is a great name, it’s simple, clearly shows that it’s Apple’s and its an operating system; this kind of thinking is why I think Microsoft should have chosen Metro.

If we now stop analysing the name we have another issue and that is that Windows RT will probably be shortened a lot of the time to WinRT and here’s the problem; something with that name already exists. It’s the Windows RunTime which is the new environment for Metro apps to run in. You can bet that there is going to be confusion about this. Maybe it can be argued that Windows RT and WinRT are technically the same thing but then we are back to my first point about naming a consumer product after a fairly boring underlying aspect of the operating system. Additionally Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro will both also feature Windows RT which could become confusing too.

Of course there have been names from companies chosen before for their products that first get slated and then people just accept them. FaceTime and iPad both being two of the most significant ones. However, at least FaceTime is very descriptive as to what it is and iPad is clearly an Apple product and is easy to say. Windows RT whilst being obviously Microsoft has none of those traits. I also wonder that because Windows RT is so obviously Microsoft if it will hinder the product in the consumer market, Microsoft doesn’t exactly have the best mind share with consumer. Seeing as Windows RT will not be able to run pretty much any apps from previous versions of Windows it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to keep calling it Windows.

Technically Windows is the wrong name to use for Windows RT, windows aren’t really present in the Metro UI; however tiles are.

There was some additional news to come out of this announcement and that is that Media Center will no longer be a main part of Windows but will be something that will have to be purchased separately. It’s not clear on what version of Windows 8 Media Center will be available.

What are your thoughts of all this news?

The first few images I wanted to share we of the possible look and feel and of the Metro browsers that both Mozilla and Google are building. There have been some people who think that companies will struggle to differentiate their app from another one if their conform rigorously to the Metro UI. However, I think these designs show that whilst using the Metro guidelines it is also possible to have a unique looking app.

First up is the Firefox Metro Style App. The app takes some of the design elements of the current desktop version of Firefox but blends it nicely with the way in which Metro Style Apps should be designed and copies the design that the Metro version of IE will be using with the tabs at the top and navigation bar at the bottom.

Following this is a concept image for Chrome. The concept below again incorporates some of the designs from the current desktop version and follows the same layout as the Firefox concept. Perhaps there could be a greater difference between these two concepts but both look good to me and are along the lines of what I expect to see from the companies when they are released later this year.

The final concept image for Metro browsers is actually an extension to Metro IE which shows how a downloads page could appear. The concept looks good to me and shows a way of offering features that aren’t currently available in the Metro version of IE (or at least not that I know of).

Another concept image was what a Bing/Microsoft Translator app could look like for Windows 8 and I think it looks very elegant and simple.

The final image is of what a single Xbox app could look like. Whilst there wont be a single app for all the Xbox entertainment marketplaces some of the aspects of the below design seem better than the design of Xbox apps currently available for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

What do you think about all these concept images? I have seen many others but these are the best ones I have seen, however, please do let me know about any other images you have seen.

This got me thinking not about what apps third party developers have created but actually about the Windows Phone apps Microsoft has already made for Windows Phone. One of the most talked about subjects with regards for Metro Apps for Windows 8 is whether Microsoft will make a version of Office available for the Metro interface or whether users will just have to use the desktop to access Office.

Well if the rumours are true then potentially the Office apps that are currently available on Windows Phone could run on Windows 8; therefore I wonder if they are kind of preview versions of what Microsoft plans to use on Windows 8. It wouldn’t require much work (if any) from Microsoft to get a Metro App version of Office on Windows 8 as they can just use the Windows Phone version.

I expect that the Office apps will get new features in Windows Phone 8 compared to the versions found in Windows Phone 7, if that is true then the apps might be designed to run on Windows 8 as well as Windows Phone 8. It would certainly make sense considering how much overlap there is likely to be with the underlying OSes of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

I really do hope there are Metro app versions of the Office apps and not just desktop versions. I know that Office 15 is expected to have a more touch focused design but aside from the design of the apps they wont be able to make use of the new Charms in Windows 8 which I think will be an excellent aspect of the OS.

However, if Microsoft aren’t planning to release a Metro version of the Office apps it seems a bit ridiculous. Microsoft will have to have Office apps on Windows Phone 8, probably just an updated version of those found on Windows Phone 7. A lot of rumours suggest that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 will share the same, if not a very similar app platform, so if Microsoft build Office apps for Windows Phone 8 why not just let them work on Windows 8 too.

Do you think Microsoft will make Office Metro Apps? If so do you think it could just be the ones from Windows Phone?

Xbox for Windows is no doubt going to receive an awful lot of marketing and could be a major selling point for Windows 8 devices even though it will only be through apps on the system; I imagine that the Xbox apps might be bundled by OEMS like Windows Live often is on Windows 7. But Xbox on Windows 8 isn’t just about games on Windows 8 as there is already an Xbox companion app for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview that allows users to control their Xbox using a Windows 8 device. Then there are also the media collections of music and videos that will soon be leveraging the Xbox Live brand to allow Microsoft to have a single brand for all it’s entertainment stores.

Therefore, if Sony have refused to make a Windows Phone because of the in built Xbox functionality what are they going to do about Windows 8? I don’t imagine Sony’s stance on being anti Xbox will carry over from phones to PCs but Sony aren’t just going to do nothing.

At the very least I expect that the Xbox apps wont get a mention in any Sony marketing material and probably wont be bundled with a new PC. However, there is more Sony could do to combat the arrival of Xbox on PCs, for example Sony could release some PlayStation apps for Windows 8 that tries to counter the functionality of the Xbox apps. This is the most I can see that Sony can do to counter the Xbox’s arrival on Windows.

I did wonder if Sony would make any PlayStation apps only available to Sony PCs but I don’t think that would help them in any way as all Windows 8 devices will be able to use the Xbox apps. Equally I don’t think Microsoft are allowing OEMs the right to block certain apps from being installed on their systems so Sony wouldn’t be able to stop Xbox apps being installed on their devices.

Whilst Sony might not like the fact that they are going to be selling devices that can run Xbox apps I think it will benefit Windows 8 as a whole as it’s likely that there will PlayStation apps for Windows 8 too. Just like having Xbox apps on Windows 8 could be a major incentive for some people to buy a Windows 8 device so too could be true for PlayStation apps.

This also make me wonder that if Sony does start selling devices that have Xbox functionality what reason could Sony give for not selling Windows Phones?

What are your thoughts on this? I’m interested to know as it seems to me to be a fairly unique and possibly controversial topic.

I have to admit that even before downloading and testing out Windows 8 I had my doubts about how different the desktop and metro experiences will be and what effect that might have on using Windows 8. At first it wasn’t a fun experience and I was expecting it, I’m not sure how this must be for people who aren’t necessarily sure what Windows 8. However, over the past 24 hours where I have been using Windows 8 exclusively I have rapidly grown accustomed to this change of UIs and actually it’s not too much of a problem.

To go back to my original analogy when one first flies it can be quite a traumatic experience, like going from the desktop only versions of Windows before to the new Metro UI. Once up in the air though a lot of people’s anxiety’s fade away, sure there will be turbulence but this is often nothing serious, but it’s the landing of the plane that can be the most jarring. I have found most of this to be true with Windows 8; when in the Metro UI it’s wonderful, even with a mouse and keyboard, and the desktop works well, especially with some of the new features. But going between the Metro UI and the desktop is jarring, just like when a plane lands. And yet, over time people grow used to being in a plane when it lands, I know that I hardly even notice now when a plane lands, and increasingly that’s how I feel about moving between the two UIs.

For most of my time using Windows 8 I am in the desktop as I only have access to a keyboard and mouse but it’s not painful to go into the Metro UI. Equally when I am in the Metro UI I no longer loath having to go back to the desktop. I am trying out as many Metro apps as possible to move away from the desktop apps so I have been playing my music, checking my emails and chatting with people through the corresponding Metro apps but equally I have needed to put together a PowerPoint presentation, edit a word document and browse the internet with a mouse and keyboard. The two experiences, whilst being drastically different, seem to compliment each other. In fact some things are nicer because the two UIs compliment each other, the fact that I have to use the physical start button actually makes me quicker at moving around the PC and searching is much quicker than it was in Windows 7.

I’m sure that there will be people out there who disagree with me, but I would urge them to really try Windows 8 out. Actually use it as the main PC for a while and see how it treats you, as I said I am mostly staying in the desktop UI. It really isn’t as bad as I was expecting/feared. I’m also sure that there will be people who liken the Metro UI to toys because of the bright colours which to me is a ridiculous claim but each to their own; although Ferrari’s and Lamborghinis aren’t likened to toys but their colours are very bright.

It’s reassuring to know that this is only the Consumer Preview and that come the Release Candidate more features will have been added and further refinements made. As good (or bad) as Windows 8 is at the minute with regards to handling the two UIs it will only get better.

As you can probably tell from this after my first 24 hours with Windows 8 I am impressed and pleased that it is not nearly as bad as I feared. If you haven’t yet I would really urge you to try out Windows 8, it’s well worth it and I think you could well be pleasantly surprised. If you have already tried the Windows 8 Consumer Preview what are your thoughts?

If Windows 7 PCs have been likened to the trucks of the tech world then I can only imagine that the Metro UI of Windows 8 can only be likened to light aircraft as it’s just so fast and allows me to just fly through apps and tasks.

Watch the videos.

You can expect a write up of my initial impressions of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview at some point over the next few days.

I imagine that in 2016 more people will be running Windows 7 than Windows 8 but despite this fact I doubt that Windows 8 will be a failure, in fact I expect it to do well. It might not be perceived as highly as Windows 7 was when it debuted but then anything following Vista would have been welcomed with open arms. Whilst on the topic of Vista I don’t think that Windows 8 will be anything like the PR disaster that Vista was despite what some some will have you think.

I really like Windows 7, it’s easily the best desktop OS I have ever owned and I expect it to sell well for several years to come alongside Windows 8. Microsoft has traditionally sold a new version of Windows alongside the previous version for a while and I don’t expect there to be any difference. Therefore, Windows 7 will continue to sell for the next few years increasing it’s market share from it’s current size of 525 million copies; I expect Microsoft to have sold over 700 million copies of Windows 7 before it stops being on sale.

Therefore in 4 years time, 2016, I imagine that Microsoft wont have sold over 700 million copies of Windows 8 as that would only have given it 3.5 years in the market compared to 7’s likely 4-5 years. Having said that though I expect that Windows 8 will do very well in the market as it certainly wont be dead on arrival.

So, why is Windows 8 destined to not be dead on arrival? Simple:

1. Windows 7 is basically a subset of Windows 8

Windows 8 will offer a desktop experience very similar to Windows 7 of today and even some new features such as faster booting, Storage Spaces and better multi-desktop support. Then alongside the traditional Windows 7 experience will be the new Windows 8 experiences such as “sharing” built into the OS and new UIs for accessing devices and managing settings and of course the new Start Screen and the ecosystem that it will bring. There will also be significant synchronisation mechanisms built into Windows 8 although it’s not yet clear how broad these will be.

Therefore, for whatever reasons people buy Windows 7 they will also be able to buy Windows 8 for the same reason. However, with Windows 8 they will get access to a brand new ecosystem, easier way to store and access data from the Cloud and a new UI and better UX for using Windows.

2. Metro

As everyone knows Windows 8 will come with a brand new default interface: Metro. Metro is more than just a UI though as it as much about a mind-set as it is about the placement of elements on a screen. Metro is about reducing unnecessary information and designs so that the content really shines and in doing so becomes the UI. The use of colours and text is used to allow users to quickly identify what something is without having to get used to what specific designs/images/indicators mean.

Some people have likened Metro on Windows 8 to Windows 1.0 because of its “gaudy colours, boxy designs and unresizable windows” however that is like saying that a modern day car is like a horse and cart. Sure both have 4 wheels and something that provides horse power but you can go far, far further and faster with a modern day car than a horse and cart.

There is perhaps an argument to be made that Metro offers a completely different way for interacting with a PC than the traditional Windows desktop but I find that to be a fairly weak argument. I have seen people fly through my Windows Phones on the first time of picking them up because the Metro UI is designed to be simple and easy to use. There are no real hidden things, everything is on display and descriptive enough to know what the likely outcome of pressing something will be, the same can not be said for the traditional Windows desktop.

3. The applications

Remember how I said that Windows 7 is basically a subset of Windows 8 well that is true for applications too. Therefore, any application that can run in Windows 7 on x86/x64 computers will also run in Windows on the same kind of hardware. What is not yet clear is whether ARM devices running Windows 8 will also be able to run the apps that can currently run in Windows 7.

I am unaware of anyone asking where the apps are for Windows 7 and I doubt people will really wonder where they are for Windows 8 either considering all Windows 7 apps will run in Windows 8. Of course, though, there will be a new ecosystem in Windows 8, one that works only in the Metro Start Screen, here might be a different issue. But again Windows 8 wont be without apps, the Start Screen might be but not Windows 8.

We will know by the end of February what kind of apps will be available for the Metro Start Screen when Microsoft releases the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and opens up the Windows Store, until then we really don’t know of many apps that will be available for the Metro Start Screen.

4. Developers

Developers who have spent their lives writing C#, C++ or even HTML applications can now all write apps for Windows 8’s new WinRT platform. This is the first OS to offer such a large selection of development languages to run apps and therefore allows more developers to write apps for the platform than any other ecosystem.

Let’s assume that Windows 8 sells as well as Windows 7 has done and that within about 2 years of it being on sale it will have almost 500 million users. That would make it a formidable ecosystem and any developer not working on apps for it would be silly, it would easily rival iOS and Android. But, for argument’s sake we could assume that Windows 8 doesn’t sell as well as Windows 7, it could still easily have several hundred million users which would still rival iOS and Android. I can’t imagine that many developers are ignoring the possibility of writing apps for Windows 8 even if they haven’t announced any plans.

Let’s not forgot though that there are currently many, many developers for Windows as it is and it wont take much for them to start work on WinRT apps even if it does require them to build apps from scratch.

One final thing to think about are the rumours that Microsoft is working on unifying its development platforms so that an app can be written once and with minor tweaking can run on Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. Are there really developers who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

5. Smartphones and Tablets

There are rumours that the next major version of Windows Phone will sit on top of much of the underlying code of Windows 8 to provide consistency across the two platforms and allow apps to run on both as I mentioned before. We know that Metro works very well on touch screen devices and therefore I have no doubt that Windows 8 will be lovely on tablets just as it could be on smartphones if the rumours are true. Several analyst firms reckon that Windows Phone is on track to become the number 2 mobile OS by 2015 behind Android, if that is correct then Windows 8 will do well not just on traditional PCs but also on mobile devices too without even considering where tablets will fit in.

It wasn’t long ago that the iPad was the only real tablet but in the past few months there have been several very popular and competitive tablets released such as the Amazon Fire and several from Samsung. This shows that nothing can be taken for granted and that there should still be room for more tablets and why not Windows 8 ones.

If you add it all up it looks pretty good to me that Windows 8 certainly wont be dead on arrival. Sure there are many people who wont want Windows 8, mainly those who have recently updated from Windows XP to Windows 7 but having said that there are still a few hundred million people using Windows XP who could easily update to Windows 8 rather than 7. PCs with Windows 8 or Windows 7 will continue to sell and most consumers will want the latest version on their PCs because why buy something old? Windows 8 will offer pretty much everything Windows 7 offers but with some exciting new opportunities for developers and consumers alike. Windows 8 wont be dead on arrival.