Will Windows 8 Become the Boldest Redesign in Microsoft History?

  • Microsoft may be redefining itself as a hardware company with the release of its Surface tablet, but Fast Company suggests this could be a risky move, as “Windows has long been Microsoft’s bread and butter.”
  • Surface could complicate this, as it pits Microsoft directly against its partners in many other areas; the companies that buy Windows for their PCs will now compete in the competitive tablet market against their partner Microsoft.
  • And just as Microsoft is re-imagining itself as a company, the newest Windows also pushes boundaries of innovation. The new system uses grids of tiles that essentially bring the tablet experience to both mobile devices and PCs.
  • “Microsoft has united around a set of design principles that it dubbed Metro, a slick, intuitive, and playful visual language that is seeping into the company’s product portfolio, from Office to Bing to Windows Phone to Xbox, creating a common platform for hardware of all types,” explains Fast Company.
  • Windows 8 provides a stripped-down interface to emphasize what Microsoft calls an “authentically digital” experience. “It’s not about adornments,” says Sam Moreau, director of user experience for Windows. “It’s about typography, color, motion. That’s the pixel.”
  • “Windows 8 could also transform the nature of the software giant’s competition with home-run king Apple, potentially reversing a string of embarrassing defeats, especially in the mobile market,” notes the article. “Even more improbably, Microsoft is building this comeback attempt not on its traditional strength — engineering — but on, of all things, design.”

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