Windows 8 Consumer Preview Hits 1 Million Downloads

Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Previewsaw more than one million downloads during the first day of its release, the Building Windows 8 team said via Twitter late Thursday. The beta version of Windows 8 posted on Wednesday morning; it’s not clear whether the first million downloads occurred within or just beyond the first 24 hours of availability. Microsoft recorded three million downloads of the Windows 8 Developer Preview between September and December, 2011.

The latest version of Windows is a dramatic departure from previous versions of Microsoft’s trademark OS. Most notably, the decades old PC desktop has been kicked from its perch as the main Windows interface in favor of a touch-centric Start screen that echoes Windows Phone 7. “Windows 8 reimagines Windows, from the chipset to the experience,” said Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows division.

iPad Challenger, PC Dud?

Expectations are high that Windows 8 (also designed for ARM SoCs) will enable tablet manufacturers to mount a serious challenge to Apple’s iPad, which Android tablets have so far failed to do. Whether Windows 8 will be a big winner on traditional PCs, however, is unclear. Microsoft says Windows 8 is just as easy to use with a mouse as it is with a touchscreen, but it requires users to learn a new way of navigating a Windows PC.

The start button is replaced with a hot corner that kicks you back to the new Metro-style touch-friendly Start screen. From there you can choose to open traditional desktop apps or use some of the new Metro apps such as Xbox LIVE Games, Maps, and a Metro-style Internet Explorer.

PC users will also have to be content with full-screen programs when using Metro-style apps, and must learn how to use the new Charms Bar on the far right of the Windows 8 display. The Charms Bar includes important system functions such as Settings, Search, settings for devices connected to your computer, and a new social-networking friendly Share button.

Windows 8 does offer some new features for PC desktop users, including a revampedfile transfer dialog box, tools to deal with duplicate files, faster boot times, and new SkyDrive integration with Windows Explorer (not yet available in the Consumer Preview).

But the main focus for Microsoft in Windows 8 is the touch experience, while the desktop has been turned into a second-class citizen. That appears to be Microsoft’s plan for the moment, anyway.  The reaction of regular PC users to Windows 8′s radical departure is unclear.

Nevertheless, the large numbers of Windows 8 Consumer Preview downloads suggests, at the very least, that users are interested in checking out the newest version of Windows. Also see “15 Awesome Windows 8 ‘Metro-Style’ Apps.”)

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Microsoft Likely to Limit Windows 8 Edition Selections

Microsoft will probably trim the number of Windows 8 editions it will sell later this year, but won’t mimic Apple’s online-only approach to OS upgrades, a retail sales analyst said last week.

In developed countries, including the U.S., Microsoft offers Windows 7 in four SKUs, or editions: Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. All but Enterprise — available only to volume licensees such as major corporations — are sold to the general public.

Evidence uncovered by ZDNet blogger Stephen Chapman – who found a list of Windows 8 SKUs on a pair of Hewlett-Packard support documents — hints at just three editions of the upcoming OS: a generic “Windows 8,” Professional and Enterprise.

Missing from that list: Ultimate.

“There had been interest in Windows 7 Ultimate,” said Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group, but sales were skimpy and vastly outnumbered by Home Premium and Professional.

Baker expects that, if Microsoft does produce a Windows 8 Ultimate edition, it would be an OEM-only SKU. In other words, Microsoft would drop it from retail and offer it only to computer makers to pre-install on high-end PCs.

The two retail editions for Windows 8 will most likely be Home Premium — perhaps renamed — for consumers, and Professional for businesses or consumers who need to connect to their workplace network, said Baker.

Enterprise would remain as the upgrade SKU dealt to volume license customers.

Microsoft’s Pattern

Dropping Ultimate from the Windows 8 list would fit with Microsoft’s demotion of that edition in Windows 7. Three years ago and several months before Windows 7 launched, Microsoft confirmed that it was dropping the heavily-criticized “Ultimate Extras” from the version.

Microsoft first pitched Ultimate Extras in the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista, butbuyers blasted the company for a sluggish release pace of the add-ons that Extras had promised.

Windows 7 came in two other editions — Starter and Home Basic — but both were exiled to emerging markets as part of Microsoft’s strategy to offer lower-priced versions that could better compete with the rampant piracy in some countries. The company could retain those developing-markets-only SKUs for Windows 8.

Microsoft has not yet disclosed how many versions of Windows 8 for PCs it will sell, and today declined to share more information about its plans.

An announcement of the Windows 8 lineup could come next week. Microsoft will host a Windows 8 launch event in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday, Feb. 29, when it’s also expected to release the Consumer Preview .

Although Microsoft revealed the names of its Windows 7 SKUs in early February 2009, nearly nine months before launching the operating system in late October, the company is on a slower pace for Windows 8 than it used then. For example, Windows 8′s Consumer Preview will appear almost two months later than the early January 2009 ship date of Windows 7′s first public beta.

Upgrade Strategy

One thing Microsoft won’t do, said Baker, is follow Apple’s lead and sell Windows 8 upgrades only online. Last year, Apple sold OS X Lion almost exclusively through the Mac App Store, and recently said it would use the e-market later this year to distribute the Mountain Lion upgrade .

“The [Windows] ecosystem is very different from Apple’s, so no, I don’t think they would go to that extent,” said Baker.

Windows 8 will include Microsoft’s new Windows Store mart as the sole channel for Metro-style apps — and some traditional x86/64 Windows software — but the firm hasn’t said whether Windows 7 users will be able to access the store, and thus make it a destination for upgrade downloads.

With the new store’s emphasis on Metro apps, Baker doubted that Microsoft would use that channel to sell Windows 8 upgrades — people with access to the store would, by definition, already be using the operating system — but acknowledged that the e-store could be used to deliver future upgrades to Windows 8 users.

Instead, Baker said, Microsoft will continue to include brick-and-mortar retail stores in its delivery mix.

“Microsoft wants to be where the customers want to buy,” Baker said. “And the key card approach they used [with Office] cut a lot of the costs of being in stores.”

Microsoft sold some upgrades of Office 2010 at retail minus installation media, instead including a small credit card-sized piece of plastic — called “Product Key Cards” – that unlocked downloaded versions of the suite or added features to the OEM-preloaded Office Starter 2010.

Windows 8 upgrades could be sold using Product Key Cards to activate downloaded trials, or Microsoft could continue to sell electronic editions through its current e-store , where it now sells Windows 7.

Microsoft has not set definitive system requirements for Windows 8 upgrades — much less prices — but has indicated that the new OS will run on PCs now powered by either Vista or Windows 7.

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