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Windows 8 Beta Rumored in Late January

Microsoft could release a beta of Windows 8 in "late January" or "late February," according to two media reports.

The Windows 8 production timeline has not been released by Microsoft to the public, but these rumors of an early 2012 beta release seem to be in keeping with Microsoft's general Windows release cycles, which tend to occur every three years. For instance, looking back to Windows 7, we saw the beta appear at the January 2009 CES show, with a final public release of that operating system in October of 2009.

Microsoft's software test release cycles typically progress from "beta" to "release candidate," which is when all of the features are baked into the product. The next phase after those test stages is the "release-to-manufacturing" build, which is a final product for PC makers to image and install onto new hardware. Finally, a "general availability" release represents the actual release of the product to the public.

Currently, Windows 8 is at a pre-beta "developer preview" stage, where the final feature set is not clear. However, people can download the developer preview here and take a look at it.

Rumors
Citing unnamed sources, Winrumors.com points to late January 2012 for the beta release of Windows 8. Winrumors' sources also expect to see a preview copy of the next Office software to appear at that time. The Computer Electronics Show will start on Jan. 10, but Microsoft will only show preview versions of its new OS and new Office around that time, according to Winrumors.

A story by The Next Web claims that "sources close to Microsoft" expect the Windows 8 beta to appear in late February. The author of this article estimates a June 2012 release-to-manufacturing milestone for Windows 8.

Veteran Microsoft observer Mary Jo Foley, who often gets tips from Microsoft sources, has only heard that the beta of Windows 8 will be released sometime after the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in January, according to her note at the end of this blog post.

Windows 8 may offer some additional complications this time around because of its added support for the ARM hardware platform, on top of x86 and x64 hardware. A recent article published by DigiTimes cited unnamed notebook vendors as predicting that Windows 8 on ARM would appear "at the end of 2012 and will try to compete in the notebook market as soon as June 2013."

Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry has consistently forecast Windows 8 device shipments slipping into 2013, as noted in this Computerworld article. Cherry told Reuters that the release-to-manufacturing ship date for Windows 8 would occur sometime in the fourth quarter of 2012, followed by general availability 90 days afterward. That schedule pushes the general availability release of Windows 8 into 2013.

Wes Miller, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, has explained that Microsoft would typically want to target its Windows 8 releases to its hardware partners based on specific consumer selling periods. For instance, the back-to-school market selling season starts in May, while the holiday selling season begins in August. If Cherry is correct on the fourth-quarter 2012 milestone for releasing Windows 8 to manufacturers, that would give them some time to produce for those 2013 selling seasons.

The Trouble With Tablets
Windows 8 will be a PC desktop OS as well as one designed for tablets running system-on-chip technologies from Intel and AMD (x86), plus the new ARM platform. Should Windows 8 get pushed out into 2013, that schedule would put Microsoft further behind the consumer tablet race, currently led by the Apple iPad.

Microsoft may already be facing marketing challenges as consumers look to purchase other tablets than ones based on Windows. A recent study by Forrester Research suggested that consumer interest in Windows tablets is already on the wane.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is online news editor for the 1105 Enterprise Computing Group.

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Reader Comments:

Tue, Dec 6, 2011 Kenneth

I have the Developer Preview installed and eagerly awaiting the Beta release. I hope the transitions between Metro and Desktop are more fluent. Metro apps and interface are definitely a win on tablets but the ability to have multiple "Windows" open is a requirement for power users like me on the desktop and things now feel a bit limiting.

Sun, Dec 4, 2011

Where is your proof? Al you do is make a lot of claims but nothing to back it up.

Sat, Dec 3, 2011

I mean below-(it was above when I wrote my comment)John

Sat, Dec 3, 2011 John

Please remove this sad writing above with little research to arrive at such a pointless disposition that has nothing to do with the article. Thanks- John

Fri, Dec 2, 2011

Thank you for the article. The research is probably a few years old also. I think they are years behind the game, but right on track for them. They will start making tablets, when the world moves to tabloots. So they are always two-four years behind innovation. After this amount of years nobody uses things things except grandma and the kids.

Also Mary Jo works for them and gets paid by them as an independent writer. This does not mean her propaganda is fact since she eats in Redmond.

Another worthless product created by lowest bid workers. When the workers are paid less than minimum wage to create a MULTI-billion dollar product its doubtful anything innovative arises since the workers only care about food and paying rent. Majority of Microsoft employees are imported and get get less than minimum wage since they are hired out of country. The amount of workers who work for free in Redmond exceeds the amount of people getting paid. Thousands of MS Interns work in Redmond every month do not get paid a paycheck. Beta testers do not get paid a pay check. Prision labor gets less than a dollar an hour working for Microsoft in Texas and Washington state prisons to create your MS products. Imported visa owrkers who are hired through offshore companies avoid the state laws and import thousands every month. These visa workers who do not speak english, are crammed into dormroom apartments in redmond and never paid over minimum wage. They are paid in rupees and pesos less than five dollars an hour to develop billion dollar applications. As the million dollar promotion and marketing of losses, and reduction of pay by 75%, workers are lined up to work longer hours for less pay.

Boycott Microsoft

Boycott Microsoft Now!

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