Analyzed in Detail Earlier; Now Just a Runover

In my previous post, I mentioned the last week of October 2012 as quite eventful for Microsoft. After years of R&D, the company took the tech world by storm with the release of three delightful products—Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Surface. Now almost a month has passed by after their arrival. So far so good for the software whale. And obviously users too seem to be reasonably happy. Here my attempt is to make a gist of all information that we have provided in our previous posts on these three offsprings of Microsoft.

Launched on October 26, 2012, Windows 8 is an astutely designed touchscreen-friendly operating system. Though it may seem a bit confusing for the first time to use, this OS has really impressive features. What I feel as the plus point of Windows 8 is the security aspect. There is UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) to ensure that only recognized applications are run, keeping the PC secured. Even the Windows Defender in this OS is a comprehensive malware removal tool, which is much more advanced than in its previous avatar. In simple words, you no more need additional security software to safeguard your PC. Sounds great, right? The list of exciting attractions does not end here. You can check e-mails, messages, photos, upcoming events and much more, without unlocking the Windows 8 OS. To make things more fabulous, there is also provision to share photos with your friends over social networking sites. In an attempt to make the OS more bewitching, Microsoft has made changes to the Task Manager as well.

Now let us pass on our focus to Microsoft Surface tablet that was brought out on the same date as of Windows 8. Though Surface was initially expected to be a strong contender to Apple iPad and Google Nexus, it failed to receive the response as anticipated. Though Surface is more appealing and has better storage memory and screen size to Nexus, it seems to have lost a bit as the screen resolution and the camera feature are much behind both Apple iPad and Nexus. Though, the price of the three are very much on par, in my view, challenging Apple is a far cry for Surface at least for the for the time being. 

Windows Phone 8, the second generation mobile phone operating system from Microsoft, comes with designed looks to allure users. Apart from the appearance, the Phone OS also has several attributes that can make you may fall in love with it. There are Hubs (People Hub, Games Hub, Photos Hub, Music and Video Hub are few among them) to keep you engaged while relaxing after a long day. Microsoft has taken care to add improved version of Bing Maps in Phone 8. Although, certain performance issues galore in the initial run, yet Microsoft has taken a note of it and will soon come up with an update to fix all such hiccups, so to speak.

Very recently Microsoft has also introduced Play To feature that, with its enchanting features, opens wide opportunities for app developers to create apps for Microsoft products. Speaking from the user’s side, it provides him a wide range of apps to opt from the Windows Store. It is worth mentioning here that since last month and a half the number of apps in Windows Store has gone up from 5000 to 120,000 and Play To will surely act as a catalyst to take the number much much higher. 

All in all it’s a good beginning for the reimagined operating system from Microsoft and its mobile phone version. However, Surface needs to resurface in an enriched state to capture the market. Let’s wait till January for the time being.

Images by: curiouslee; Nicola since 1972; comedy_nose; Microsoft Sweden; skuds