Microsoft is ready to reveal the next version of its Windows software. The operating system is known as project “Threshold” or Windows 9. A new name for it will be revealed in a few days. The company believes that it will help improve sales to businesses who avoided Windows 8 because of its unfamiliar interface, opting for the four-year-old Windows 7.


The very fact that the company decided to change the name of the operating system confirms a new direction for Microsoft moving away from an aggressive focus on Windows and desktop computers. Now Microsoft makes emphasis on selling services across all devices.

As for Windows 8, the experts say that it wasn’t a shining moment for the company, suggesting that the biggest issue that lingered was the negative brand equity in the name. Indeed, many users howled in protest over moving away from the start menu and the introduction of a grid of squares or tiles, which represented applications. The system was originally known as “Metro UI”, but then there was a trademark dispute with a Metro AG, a large German retail group, which made Microsoft to change name to just “Windows” or “Modern UI”.

The rumors and recent leaks confirm that the start menu will be reintroduced in the next Windows, with an option of tacking on tiles. While the Windows 8.1 update also brought back the start button, the latter simply opened the tiled start screen instead of a start menu like in previous versions of Windows. Apparently, the company has yet to solve the problem of users having to toggle between the modern interface and the old-style desktop for Microsoft Office among other desktop apps.

Thus far, Microsoft didn’t reveal the new name for the operating system, but promised to discuss about where Windows is headed at the event in San Francisco on September, 30. The company is now keen to rebuild respect with moving away from the personal computer toward a larger role in the mobile computing world along with such tech giants as Apple and Google.

The new slogan of the company now is “mobile first, cloud first”, and that theme is expected to be at the fore at the event. The industry experts believe that Windows 9 can appear a game-changing product release for Microsoft. Indeed, the company seems to understand that sales of personal computers have leveled off, and with it sales of its OS. According to statistics, with the current explosion of smartphones and tablets, Windows now powers only 14% of computing devices sold in 2013.

The industry experts recommend to focus on selling high-quality services to users on whatever device or system they are using. This is what Microsoft decided to do, changing itself from a company that was Windows-centric to the one that is services-centric. Hopefully, the new management of the company understands that the world is changing and the company has to change along with it. Windows revenue is likely going to decline, and the company’s task now is to replace that source of revenue with revenue from services on all sorts of platforms.

The advantage of Microsoft is that it has apps and services users can’t live without. Indeed, the company built its business on being excellent at delivering solutions people needed in the moment – for instance, Excel in the 1990s. Apparently, this is what Microsoft has to get back to – continue innovating and creating things that computer users find indispensable