The system will run on a wide range of devices, including phones, tablets, PCs and Xbox games consoles, with applications sold from a single store. The tech giant offered a glimpse of its latest vision at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday, where it unveiled what the system’s Start Menu will look like.
The firm is going to make a technical preview version available to advanced users who sign up to the Windows Preview website. It plans to unveil details about consumer features early next year, with a formal release in mid-2015. Windows 8, the current version unveiled two years ago, has been criticised for its interface, which has forced users to change how they use their devices.
Joe Belfiore, an executive at the company who oversees Windows design and evolution, said Windows 10 will offer “the familiarity of Windows 7 with some of the benefits that exist in Windows 8” to help business users make the transition. There will also be one unified store from which to buy games, apps, music, videos and more. Quite how this will work in practice - especially for apps - remains to be seen, but if you can buy an app on one device and have it available on all your Windows kit, then that has to be a good thing and a potential reason to invest in a Windows ecosystem.
Windows Phone itself will get an interim update which should be rolled out to smartphones early in 2015, bringing Cortana to older Windows Phone 8 handsets, which are lacking Microsoft’s digital assistant.Windows Phone 8.1 Update will also let users create folders on the home screen, introduce a kind of guest mode (in addition to Kids Mode) where you can allow friends to access certain apps, and new ‘accessory apps’, which provide notifications from your phone on a compatible wearable device, such as an activity tracker.
Interestingly, there will also be a VPN designed for making it safer for anyone to use public Wi-Fi hotspots. Also see: 30 funny questions you should ask Cortana. It’s possible that later on in 2015, to tie in with the public release of Windows 10, we’ll see an announcement or even a launch of Windows Phone 10.
If Microsoft also wants users to see Windows as one platform, it needs to bring the version numbers in line with each other as quickly as possible, and ensure that it doesn't cut existing owners off as it did with the change from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8. That would be a disaster as Windows Phone has finally established itself as a credible third option alongside Android and iOS, but is struggling to increase its market share.
This in turn is putting off developers, which creates a catch-22 scenario where the lack of apps (or quality apps) is putting off users from switching to Windows Phone. Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to get developers on board, but it’s hard to see Windows Phone gaining on Android or iOS during 2015
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