Microsoft Corporate Vice President Steven Guggenheimer, who heads the company's OEM relationships, gave a Computex keynote this afternoon. He showed many demos of Windows 8 and reflected on the huge variety of solutions the company is encouraging with its partners. He called this Microsoft's "biggest year ever," and said it isn't just about Windows 8, but also the embedded version, Windows Phone, a new version of Office, and many others. Still, the focus of the talk was on Windows 8.
Guggenheimer started by talking about how separate ecosystems for PCs, phones, and TVs are now coming together as single platform. He compared Microsoft's ecosystem to Apple's, which doesn't allow any other company to have a brand, and Android's, which makes each vendor do much of the work toward creating individual ecosystems.
He showed a video with many of the devices running Windows 7 since its October 2009 debut. Microsoft has sold more than 600 million Windows 7 licenses so far, and Windows 7 is running on about 40 percent of Internet connected devices worldwide. This is all leading up to Windows 8, which he described as a complete re-imagination of Windows. Windows 8 was first publicly shown at Computex one year ago and the company issued the Release Preview last week.
Aidan Marcuss, senior director of Windows and Windows Live, did a demo of the Release Preview, showing a variety of features. He began with Picture Password, then moved into some of the built-in applications, such as the new Mail app in Metro, including pinning a particular folder and then clicking on a mail attachment and opening PowerPoint on the desktop.
Above: Aidan Marcuss, senior director of Windows and Windows Live
He showed Skydrive and its ability to access files remotely on another PC. He also shared applications, ranging from Bing Travel to a currency application, Dr. Eye for local language search, an application that showed multiple drink recipes, and Wikipedia, which takes advantage of Windows 8 gestures. He brought up a news application, searching for Computex, finding a PCMag.com story, and sharing it on Facebook.
He also showed how different people can have different accounts on the same machine. He displayed a Star Chart application, and brought up Internet Explorer 10 to play aFlash game on pbskids.org called Fresh Paint. All of these apps are currently in the Windows Store, he said.
Marcuss talked about how Windows 8 is enabling Mail, Word, home remote access, full screen applications, and all of the existing Windows applications on one device, providing a "Windows 8 no compromise experience."
He also discussed ecosystem readiness, including Microsoft's efforts to make sure systems (components), peripherals, and apps are all working right on Windows 8. Microsoft will have support for over 50,000 certified peripherals, will have tested over 13,000 desktop applications for compatibility, and currently has both hardware and application certification kits available today. Marcuss pushed developers to get their systems, peripherals, and applications certified, and for software developers to certify their desktop apps and start work on Metro Apps, and then summit them to the Windows Stores.
Guggenheimer came back to show some of the Windows 8 hardware, very quickly moving through a large range of machines. He started with all-in-one machines from Samsung, Asus, Acer (with a swiveling design), and Lenovo (which lies flat).
He then went on to show traditional high volume standard 13- to15-inch keyboard and mouse-based notebooks from HP, Sony, Asus, and the Dell XPS. In particular, he pointed out a Toshiba model with a 21:9 screen and a very thin Acer machine on which you push a button and the ports drop down.
For touch-based laptops, he showed units from Samsung and Asus, as well as an Acer notebook that uses special glass to provide rigidity for the screen with a particularly nice hinge design. For convertibles, he showed the Lenovo Yoga prototype, as well as units with removable keyboards from Samsung and Fujitsu, a very thin Asus tablet with a dockable keyboard and a new design from Acer. He ended showing the single Windows RT unit, a convertible tablet from Asus powered by a Tegra 3 process, with a 10.2-inch screen, weighing about 500 grams.
Guggenheimer gave special notice to component makers, who he said are helping computer markers create differentiated products, in particular pointing to new kinds of glass and a number of innovative hinge designs for both notebooks ad convertibles.
Consumers who buy Windows 7 machines between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013 are eligible to get a copy of Windows 8 Pro for $14.99.
Platforms and Embedded Systems
While the focus was Windows 8, Guggenheimer started his keynote by talking about other markets Microsoft competes in, like the server and embedded market. He discussed Microsoft's goal to deliver a "best-in-class hybrid cloud," and how Microsoft has both traditional servers for private cloud or on-premises technology such as Windows Server and SEL server, and public cloud infrastructure, just as Windows Azure ad services such as Hotmail, Skype, and Xbox live.
He talked about a "Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track," effectively a private cloud box based around Widows Server 2012 that hardware OEMs could sell. He showed a machine from traditional ODM (original design manufacturer) Quanta designed for this.
On Windows Embedded, he talked about how there are more than one billion embedded devices sold each year, in a wide variety of applications. In particular, he highlighted the automotive market, citing the company's Ford Sync partnership, and digital signage. He also talked about how Microsoft is working on an embedded version of Windows 8, with a new preview edition out today.
On Windows Phone, he didn't announce any new news, but talked about partnerships with Nokia, Samsung, HTC, LG, Acer, Fujitsu, and ZTE. His examples included Bing and a translator application for Windows Phone that can translate a menu from Mandarin to English on the fly.
A more interesting demo came from Microsoft's Ryan Asdourian, who recapped an E3 announcement of a service to connecting Windows Phone and a tablet to the Xbox, thus controlling a TV. The demo included taking a video from a tablet, moving it to the Xbox, and using the phone to control the video, and then also using the phone as a game controller.
Above: Microsoft's Ryan Asdourian
Guggenheimer talked about the importance of component technology in this area as well, showing off curved glass for a phone, a machine that rolls out glass, and a variety of hinge designs for tablets. In particular, he demoed a new touch screen technology from Sharp that uses a standard pencil instead of a stylus, and also works with a glove. He and Asdourian also showed a demo from Microsoft research of people creating a document together using a pen.
He ended the keynote talking about how Windows 8, Windows Embedded, Windows Server, Windows Phone, Windows 7, and Widows 8 are all working together.
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