Unusual news from Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference. Andy Lees, President of the Windows Phone division of Microsoft, said that the company is aiming to have a “single ecosystem” for PCs, phones, tablets, and television.
Sources told Nilay Patel of This Is My Next that Microsoft is also seriously considering dropping the Windows brand name when the transition happens. At the moment, Microsoft is working on Windows 8, the next version of its long running PC operating system. Windows 8 should launch sometime in 2012 and plans are for it to be made available for PCs, tablets and other devices. Microsoft claim that the company has a radical plan that could change pretty much everything about how Microsoft develops its operating system.
The story claims that Microsoft has a plan that will offer the same operating system for not just PCs, tablets and phones but also its Xbox operating system, this change will happen sometime in 2015 or 2016 which would put the launch of this plan at the end of Windows 8’s main run. It would also be around the end of the Xbox 360’s projected 10 year development time period.
This demonstrates some serious effort on Microsoft’s part to throw a jab back at Apple, which has implemented its own “ecosystem” between iPhone, iPad, computer, and television under the umbrella of iOS.
Microsoft could do away with the name “Windows” for this next version of the operating system. Such a move would do away with one of the most well know brand names in not just the tech business but in the entire world. The article does offer a caveat, saying that getting rid of the Windows brand “could well change over the next few years as this plan takes shape.”
Microsoft dropping the Windows name is speculation at this point. The brand played a major role in the company’s success and is its backbone product, according to CEO Steve Ballmer. But at the same time the idea is just crazy enough that it could be a major boon for the company’s future success.