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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones? No, he didn't.

By | November 15, 2011, 11:38am PST

Summary: Here’s what he really said.

A comment made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during Microsoft’s annual meeting of shareholders today has resulted in a flurry of speculation that Microsoft is planning to put Windows 8 onto phones. But is that really what he said?

Well, we have a tape (isn’t there always a tape?). Here’s what Steve Ballmer actually said:

‘We’ve got broad Windows initiatives, driving Windows down to the phone. With Windows 8 you’ll see new form factors powered by Windows …’

Ballmer said ‘Windows,’ not ‘Windows 8.’ My interpretation of this is that Ballmer was talking about Windows as an ecosystem, not Windows 8 as a specific platform.

So no, Windows 8 isn’t coming to phones.

What do you think?

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Topics

Phone, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Windows, Telecom & Utilities, Financial Accounting, Operating Systems, Software, Finance, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
Rick_Kl 20th Nov
Balmer said no matter what everyone else is doing, we want to keep things just as they are now.
View in thread
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Master Joe Says...Could Be Either
MasterJoe 15th Nov
With the Metro UI coming to the desktop (and tablet), it is possible that the platform could be unified into a single code base on the desktop, tablet, smartphone, XBox, and beyond. That would be a huge game changer, in my opinion. It would mean every Windows app could potentially run on any device, making the game console and tablet a much more integral part of the consumer experience and the desktop to tablet to smartphone transition a central part of the enterprise. While it's tough to say this will happen, I can see signs suggesting that it will.

--Master Joe
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
RenzoAC Updated - 15th Nov
That makes more sense, for a moment i was thinking that Microsoft would do the same thing that HP and was going to discard their recently updated WP7
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
CarlitosLx 15th Nov
I'm pretty sure that the Windows in Windows Phone means, um..., Windows.

But I could be wrong...
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
OhTheHumanity 15th Nov
I would expect some phones in the future to run Windows 8 has Fujitsu already made a phone with Windows 7 running on it, so Windows 8 would be an even better fit for something like that, but yes I don't think it will replace Windows Phone OS, may just be another option to have loaded on a phone. Would be cool with a nice dock to run full version at your desk just like your laptop/desktop today.
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
lex0712 15th Nov
Windows 8 is made for 7" screens or more, phones are not going to run Windows 8 (or shouldn't, cause theres one phone that might run it, but I think it wont be a good use experience in a tiny screen). Theres Windows Phone for that. Maybe Windows 8 can run in ARM architecture, but it is not a phone OS. I think they can make a common core for every platform, but then over that same core, build a more platform oriented version. That might be a better way of doing things.
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If they can drive it down to ATM then
LBiege 15th Nov
they can drive Win8 to anywhere. Just what embedded form it is.
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
dave95. 15th Nov
@LBiege

Have you seen the size of ATMs?


Just saying.
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Actually, the transaction material that is displayed on an ATM is small,
adornoe@... Updated - 15th Nov
and a lot less than what a smartphone can display.

The ATM screen may appear large, but the used area is a lot less.
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I hope the next major release of WP is W8 based
Johnny Vegas 15th Nov
It will perform a lot better if it is. Also has better security, networking, power management, multi media etc. It'd be a huge win for mobile consumers, developers, and MS. And that's just for pure mobile. I'd also love to be able to walk up to any desk and pair it up with a mouse, keyboard, and display and have it switch to desktop profile and let me do my every day work. Please bring W8 to WP asap!
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
dave95. Updated - 15th Nov
Ballmer always had a knack for stepping in it.

He's just simply trying to stay on message that Windows! Windows! Windows! will be everywhere. Message is so strong that Windows will even get "driven down to phones". There's no such thing as a post-pc world where consumer tablets like the iPad and smart phones take over a chunk of the users daily computing needs. Where the Cloud free us from being chained-down to that 30-year clunker we called a desktop OS. There's no such a future!



/s
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
bitcrazed 15th Nov
I imagine that Apollo (Windows Phone 8?) will be running on the Windows 8 Core Kernel and will utilize some of the key advancements in the full Windows Kernel, in particular massively updated networking, IO, comms and storage stacks.

I also imagine that by the time Windows9 & Windows Phone 9 arrive, that the WinRT v2 app platform will be available on both the desktop/laptop/tablet as well as on the phone too.
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Shoehorn this
Robert Hahn 15th Nov
I know you guys have all gone out and bought quad-core i7 machines with 16G RAM, but rather than use all that to make my $400 app run faster than the wind, I'm going to take advantage of WindowsEverywhere(tm) so I can sell it on phones for $4.99. That will of course mean making it fit on a dual-core ARM with a puny GPU and 512MB RAM.

But just listen to all the Microsoft employees. WindowsEverywhere will be so cool.
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
TsarNikky 15th Nov
If all the ballyhoo that has been released about the Metro interface is true, Windows-8 is being designed for phones and tablets--certainly not for laptops or desktops.
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
jsmurali@... 15th Nov
The eventual idea has to be "Convergence". Win 8 will be a phone o/s with a name like "Windows 8 Mobile". Some of the mobiles in the pipeline have specs which are much more than entry-level laptops. So, Win-8 by itself may run on such devices.
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
SuperMadhuG 17th Nov
Just as Apple Setup its empire by spending so much on its infrastructure and sell a product of Apple that contains everything that Apple made(hardware,OS etc etc), looks that Microsoft is trying to build a generic OS eventually that gets into all the markets (PC,tablets and Now Phones). Unlike specific Mobile OS for phones i guess concept is to have a generic OS and May be that to start with is Windows8.
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
gregnewm7 Updated - 18th Nov
He said into the phones with windows 8 which could be a watered down version of
windows 8 pc version. folks smart phones are handheld PC's. The core of Windows 8 is a version of windows 7 that has been stripped of a lot background programs and ect that make it run faster on a Tablet PC if they tweek is a little bit further it will work on a smart phone
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RE: Did Ballmer just say Windows 8 was coming to phones?
Rick_Kl 20th Nov
Balmer said no matter what everyone else is doing, we want to keep things just as they are now.

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