microsoft windows 8

An IDC analyst has tough words for Microsoft on tablets. Fixing Surface Pro is job one.

"Surface Pro today is an interesting product, but it's just not there yet," Tom Mainelli, IDC's research director for tablets, said in a phone interview with CNET.

"The battery life's not there. It's too heavy," he added.

And even Surface Pro's touted high performance is a double-edged sword. "While it performs like a notebook, Surface Pro is always going to be compared to other tablets, and tablets really need to run 8 to 10 … Read more

Windows 8 is slowly scratching its way up the OS food chain.

Microsoft's latest version of Windows took home 3.8 percent of all traffic captured by Web tracker Net Applications in April. That proved a small gain from its 3.2 percent share in March.

Starting with a 1.09 percent share in November, Windows 8 sliced out a 1.72 percent share in December. A 2.26 percent share in January helped it sneak past Mac OS X 10.8 to grab fourth place among all desktop operating systems. And February saw another small gain to 2.7 percent.… Read more

The news may seem bleak for Microsoft these days, what with Windows 8 sales disappointing, and the PC market itself sliding.

But don't tell Wall Street. Microsoft shares closed Tuesday at $33.10, their highest level in more than five years.

Microsoft shares have been moribund for the better part of the last decade. Investors have come to view the company, once the most valued stock in the world, as one with limited growth opportunity, particularly as rivals Apple and Google race ahead in key consumer markets.

The recent stock bounce, which gained momentum earlier this month, is largely … Read more

It's been half a year now since Windows 8 officially hit. For those first three months, I coveted it from afar. I was in Ecuador checking out plans to build a Latin American Silicon Valley, and I felt squeamish about upgrading without access to all the backups, support, and even the reliable postal service we take for granted in North America, should something go wrong.

That turned out to be a smart decision.

Upon my return, I kept one of my New Year's resolutions and dove headfirst into what I hoped would be a quantum leap forward in productivity and general operating system awesomeness. I upgraded my Windows 7 Dell laptop and shortly thereafter ordered a Surface Pro. … Read more

Dell is now offering 4G LTE on its XPS 10 -- a feature conspicuously absent on most Windows 8 tablets.

"Today, we're introducing an AT&T 4G LTE mobile broadband version for US customers on Dell.com, providing professionals with the same fast, reliable, high-speed internet connection as on their smartphones for connectivity anytime, anywhere," Dell said in a statement Thursday.

The XPS 10 is a bit of an oddball tablet among the top-tier PC makers.

It's one of the few tablets to use the RT version of Windows 8. And it's even a … Read more

Microsoft and its partners have cracked the tablet market, according to a report from Strategy Analytics.

Windows 8 tablets (which include Windows RT) took 7.5 percent of the global tablet market based on operating system (OS) market share in the first quarter, Strategy Analytics said.

PC makers (including Microsoft) shipped 3.4 million units worldwide in Q1 2013, "for a niche 7.5 percent share," Neil Shah, a Strategy Analytics analyst, said in a response to an e-mail query.

But the market research firm said things could have been better.

"Very limited distribution, a shortage of … Read more

After a couple of months of silence, Microsoft officials are sharing more about expansion plans for the company's Surface devices.

Surface Pro will launch before the end of May in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It will launch in Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, and Thailand before the end of June, according to an April 23 post on the Surface Blog.

Surface Pro distribution issues have plagued Microsoft since the company initially launched the devices in early February 2013.

In … Read more

Since I blogged last week about Microsoft mulling the return of the Start Button and a boot-directly-to-desktop option in Windows Blue, I've heard from a number of developers wondering what the latest Windows plan means for them.

One of Microsoft's goals with Windows 8, sources have said all along, was to try to convince the developer community that it is/was still worth writing "killer apps" for Windows. But if Blue, aka Windows 8.1, allows users to opt to boot straight to the Desktop and avoid the Metro Start Screen as much as possible, doesn'… Read more

Windows 8 users hoping for a return of the traditional Start button and Start menu in Windows 8.1 may be disappointed.

Rumors have floated recently that Microsoft may revive the familiar Start button in the Windows 8.1 update scheduled for release later this year. A new report today from The Verge claims that "sources familiar with Microsoft's plans" have confirmed the return of the Start button.

But -- and there always seems to be a "but" -- the new Start button apparently will not trigger a traditional Start menu but instead simply bounce … Read more