Windows 8 Supposedly to Be Delivered to Manufacturers in July

More evidence has surfaced indicating that Windows 8 is on track for an October release. Russian Windows blogger and enthusiast “Wzor” tipped Neowin over the weekend that Microsoft is ready to release the next-generation operating system to manufacturers (known as the “RTM” version) next month.

Neowin says Wzor “has been known to leak Windows information in the past,” lending some credibility to his statement. A forum administrator from Windows message board Winunleaked shared a purported screenshot of a build of Windows 8 sitting inside a directory labeled “RTM,” allegedly taken by Wzor from Microsoft’s internal network server.

Wzor also shared that the RTM release will arrive between July 17-20, which also happens to be the dates for Microsoft’s annual MGX conference. Releasing it then makes sense, since this is an event for the company’s sales and marketing teams.

Of course, anybody can fake a screenshot or take a lucky guess based on readily available information, so take it for what it’s worth. But getting Windows 8 to partners by July is important for several reasons.

All I Want For Christmas Is Windows 8

Simply put, Windows 8 going “RTM” in July is all about getting it in our hands for the holidays. If Microsoft hits that July date for a release to manufacturers, typically the retail release comes in October (Windows 7 is the most recent example).

If Microsoft can’t ship by July, then usually the software giant misses the holiday shopping season altogether. PCs purchased during the holiday season then will run a soon-to-be-obsolete operating system, which hurts sales.

Considering PC sales have been somewhat slow lately, Microsoft’s partners don’t want this to happen. These manufacturers are depending on Windows 8 to help boost sales and make the holiday shopping season (the next biggest period for PC sales after back-to-school sales) a successful one.

Microsoft also has personal reasons for wanting Windows 8 out as soon as possible, and that’s the Surface tablet. The company is a manufacturer itself now too, so releasing Windows 8 in time for the holidays becomes even more important.

Don’t you think Microsoft will sell quite a few Surface tablets over the holidays? It seems a few industry watchers certainly do

Yammer and Microsoft, Next Steps After the Acquisition

Ok news finally broke: Yammer is bought by Microsoft for $1.2bn. After the close of the deal, Microsoft will continue to invest in Yammer’s freemium, stand-alone service, and the team will remain under David Sacks’ direction within the Microsoft Office Division.  Now what’s next with this acquisition, what are the changes we will see in the next few months and in what areas will Yammer put itself (or be put by Microsoft).

Office as the center

Yammer is now placed in the Microsoft Office Division, which means that integration with Office(including Office 365) in general is a likely first step. A logical next step since collaboration on documents and pages in Yammer has been poor over the few years. The first victim will be most likely Crocodoc that offered a bit of an integration, but is likely to either remain unsupported as optional third-party integration while there will be tight integration with a connector for Office to collaborate on documents, but also to upload them directly into Yammer. Which also means that Microsoft and Yammer might go head to head with Jive who was already offering a strong integration with Office and their social business suite.

SharePoint, though not as you think it would

Another logical step at first sight would be SharePoint. Since SharePoint is often positioned as the social piece within Microsoft’s suite. However the main design principle around SharePoint is documents, while Yammer’s main design principle is people. Those two won’t mix, unless SharePoint 2013 is such an overhaul that the basic design principles has changed. However I don’t believe that to be true, since it would be too radical for most of Microsoft’s customers. What I do believe is that the integration with Office as mentioned before could help SharePoint in making sharing documents easier and making collaboration a bit more human.

Skype and Lync

Even though not directly in the Office suite, Skype is interesting, just as Lync. Yammer already has a way in which it shows presence (who’s online), it would be just a small step to integrate Skype with it, especially in the same way Microsoft did it with Skype in Facebook. Of course a link integration can be a premium for paid Yammer networks.

Azure

The downside for some organisations is that Yammer is only available as a full SaaS solution, hosted in the US. Microsoft has a big play with Azure where it could create an optional private cloud in which Yammer could be deployed in a managed way. Also since Microsoft has many data centers, hosting in Europe or in Asia could help in adding extra performance and lower response times.

Dynamics CRM, head on with SFDC

Dynamics CRM would be a very strategic play of both Microsoft and Yammer. Nowadays SFDC put Chatter as the social glue in the service and sales cloud offerings. And it doesn’t have to be said that Chatter was inspired by Yammer at least. By integrating not only Yammer into office, but also by integrating it more with Dynamics CRM it could eat a big part of the pie that SFDC is looking at. Especially since it is to be expected that Microsoft should be able to integrate enterprise social networking a lot better in Office than SFDC is able to.

Surface

Microsoft has an enterprise footprint which is huge and Microsoft is introducing the Surface as a new important part of their overall mobile and Windows 8 strategy. Having a good and tight integration with their productivity tools that go beyond Office and therefore include Yammer could be important. On the other hand, is the Surface so important that just for this Microsoft is willing to pay $1.2bn? I don’t think it is that important.

Rise of the suites

After the latest acquisition of IBM, SFDC, Oracle, Adobe and SAP it is clear that we are at the start of an acquisition spree in the social business space and particular the enterprise space. It is the rise of the suites and none of them focuses on enterprise collaboration and productivity, now Microsoft does and let the other guys to fight about the social marketing and analytics space. Smart move, now a smarter execution is required to stay ahead.

Just carry on with Yammer

Why would things all of a sudden have to change? We all might think that Microsoft might try to push Yammer in certain directions it shouldn’t be going, however will they? One of the best kept secrets of Microsoft is that they are a good supporter of open source. Microsoft is also big enough to just add a complete product without having to integrate it all and let it grow more organically and by allowing it to integrate with many things and not just Microsoft products and platforms.

Not so big of a deal

Of course $1.2bn is a lot of money, especially when you are acquired in cash. However for Microsoft it is not that much of a deal. It is just as much money as they paid for Visio, Navivision, Fast Search which are not really flagship products. Plus it is a lot less than de $8.5bn Microsoft paid for Skype and to put more perspective to it the net income of the record-breaking Q1 of 2012 was nearly $6bn. So it might even be that Yammer is just a strategic asset for them on the long run as a differentiator or as something that makes certain products more complete, instead of something that is driving change in the short run.

10.6-inch Microsoft Surface tablets announced, powered by Windows 8

After days of speculation and rumors, Microsoft's major announcement has just been unveiled at a press event in Los Angeles: a Surface tablet. We suspected the company might be working on its own tablet, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed the device on stage at Milk Studios in Los Angeles today. Discussing Microsoft's history with Windows, Xbox, and Kinect, Ballmer introduced a video of the company's hardware products over the years before unveiling Windows 8's companion, the Microsoft Surface.

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky took to the stage to describe the hardware of Microsoft's Surface tablet. There will be two options for Microsoft's Surface PC, one powered by Intel's 22nm Ivy Bridge chips running Windows 8, and another Surface powered by an ARM chipset and Windows RT. The Windows RT version is just 9.3mm thin, weighs 1.5lbs, includes a built-in kickstand, and is the first PC with a vapor-deposited (PVD) magnesium case, according to Microsoft. It will ship in 32GB or 64GB versions, complete with a 10.6-inch ClearType HD display (of unknown resolution).

Microsoft's Intel-based Surface tablet will run Windows 8 Pro, with a thickness of 13.5mm, a weight of 1.9lbs, and USB 3.0 support. This particular version will also include magnesium casing and a built-in kickstand, but will ship with either 64GB or 128GB storage. Additionally, the Intel version will include additional digital ink support through a pen that magnetizes to the body of the tablet, and a 10.6-inch ClearType "Full HD" display. Both of Microsoft's Surface tablets feature optional Touch and Type keyboard covers.

Microsoft says suggested retail pricing will be announced closer to availability and is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC. The Windows RT tablet will ship around the same time that Microsoft releases Windows 8 (expected in October), while the Intel-based Pro tablet will arrive about three months later.

Microsoft is launching its own iPad rivaling tablet nextweek

Microsoft is said to be planning to ratchet up its rivalry with Apple by introducing its own tablet device at a press event scheduled for next week, according to a report from TheWrap.

The event will see a “major Microsoft announcement” and we’ve heard speculation that it could be one of many possible stories unveiled, from the $1 billion plus acquisition of Yammer, to a partnership with RIM and Microsoft’s tablet strategy. TheWrap says that it is the latter, and a Microsoft-built iPad-rival is coming, according to “an individual with knowledge of the company”.

The new device could well be built on Windows RT, one of Microsoft’s new Windows 8 platforms, which is designed to keep ARM-powered PCs and tablets ‘thin and light’.

While details are still emerge about RT-powered devices, reports are already suggesting that cost may be an issue. The company is said to be planning to charge $85 for inbuilt support for Office, and additional fee could bump the cost of devices up and make them more expensive than their equivalents in Apple’s iPad family.

Given that Apple’s tablets dominate the sales in the space, price is an important battle ground for any would-be contender, and failing to at least match the iPad could count against Microsoft’s products.

More details will likely emerge, and we’ll keep you posted with them and their significance for Microsoft and the industry.

Windows 8 Catalog

There will be four different editions of Windows 8, Microsoft has informed us and posted on its blog. The four editions will be Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows Enterprise and Windows RT.

The differences between the editions are based on the platforms and features that each will contain. Windows 8 is the standard edition, likely to be found packaged with many OEM systems and will be the default recommendation for ‘many consumers’, says Microsoft.

Windows 8 Pro will “ help tech enthusiasts and business/technical professionals obtain a broader set of Windows 8 technologies.” This version includes everything in the standard version plus encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Windows Pro will have to have Media Center added on to it as a ‘media pack’ that Microsoft says will be economically priced. Windows 8 Pro has a bunch of exclusive features listed like BitLocker, Boot from VHD, Client Hyper-V, Group Policies and hosting Remote Desktops.

The third version will be called Windows RT and it will be installed on PCs and tablets that contain ARM-based processors. This will help these systems stay ‘thin and light’ and have better battery life than more power-hungry x86 processors.

Windows RT will include touch-optimized desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Microsoft says that new applications based on the WinRT programming model will be revealed soon, calling them a ”new generation of cloud-enabled, touch-enabled, web-connected apps.”

There will also be an enterprise version of Windows 8. Windows 8 Enterprise includes all the features of Windows 8 Pro plus tools for PC management, advanced security, virtualization and deployment.

You can see a full list of the differences between the features that come with the various versions of Windows 8 at Microsoft’s Windows Team Blog here.