article at Computerworld that discusses the possibility of Windows 8 being released in 2013. I can tell you that at this point, 2013 can not be an option. That would be a disaster for Microsoft the likes of which haven’t been seen before. Early on in this blog, I actually thought 2013 was a realistic target. An excerpt from this blog from January of this year thought 2013 or 2014 was realistic. That was before BUILD, before the frenzy, before the hype. Steven Sinofsky did say (at BUILD) that Microsoft would not be rushed in terms of development of this OS and it would be released only when it was ready. Right. It sounds great in principle but the reality is, there’s an expectations window for Windows 8 now and that Window is clearly sometime in 2012. The general public don’t really care and the techies, (you reading this) are mildly to very interested. For OEM’s (based on the hype and based on all the drool coming from HP, Dell, Qualcomm etc) the Window is as soon as possible. Based on all the pieces of data I have received, interviews, rumors and miscellaneous data, there is NO way that Windows 8 can miss the 2012 holiday season. The truth is, if Windows 8 isn’t ready for the 2012 holiday season, it won’t matter if it cures HIV, no one will care. The pace of change in this industry is so fast and the conventional wisdom is that Microsoft is already very late to this party. OEM’s will be pissed off if they can’t sell this next year. Partners will be pissed off and no matter what anyone says, the perception will be that 2013 would be date slippage. While the PR line would be that it’s being refined etc etc, it wouldn’t matter. It would be perceived poorly. Also, the hype for this product has been very successfully generated, it simply can’t be sustained over one more year. At some point, consumers would just tune out. And why would those consumers tune out? Oh because they’d be busy with their Kindle Fire 2’s and their IPad 3’s Make no mistake – regarding a Windows 8 2012 release date – failure is not an option.]]>
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