Microsoft touts two next-gen Office editions for Windows

Will preview long-awaited touch version next month

Microsoft this week set a loose release date for its next iteration of Office on the desktop and announced that the long-awaited touch-enabled Windows apps will launch around the same time.

The touch-enabled apps will go out as a preview in February when Microsoft debuts Windows 10 for smartphones.

Office 2016, the moniker chosen for the next edition of the classic desktop suite, will launch in "the second half of 2015," said Julie White, who heads Microsoft's Office product management, in a Thursday blog.

The name was in line with previous labels for the bundle, which was last upgraded to Office 2013 in January of that year.

White gave little information about Office 2016, which will be the choice for Windows users who work with keyboard and mouse, other than the wide release window. It's almost certain that Microsoft will offer a public preview of some kind, probably within the next few months, and start selling the suite at the same time it rolls out Windows 10.

Windows 10 has been tagged with various launch itineraries, including "early fall" by Microsoft's chief operations officer, and most recently, "later this year."

Nor did White discuss pricing or packaging, but Microsoft commonly defers those details until near the ship date. Microsoft has promised to continue to sell perpetually licensed copies of Office -- those customers pay once and can use the software as long as they want -- so the dual models of buy-once and Office 365's rent-not-own will continue.

Office 365 subscribers can upgrade to Office 2016 free of charge when it appears.

Last year, Microsoft also teased a new Office for the Mac, which has not been named -- and said then that it, too, would go on sale in the second half of 2015. Microsoft has already previewed Outlook, the email client for the new Office on OS X, to Office 365 subscribers, and updated it earlier this week.

It's probable that Microsoft will start selling both Office 2016 for Windows and the new, still-unnamed edition for the Mac at the same time, which would be a break with precedent. In the past, the Mac edition has followed the Windows version by several months at minimum.

But White used most of her post to trumpet "Office for Windows 10," a suite of touch-first apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. The latter will sport both email and calendar functionality, as does the desktop version.

Office for Windows 10 will be pre-installed on new Windows 10-powered smartphones and tablets with screens smaller than 8-in. It will also be available for larger-screen devices -- tablets and touch-ready notebooks -- from the Windows Store.

Sticking to its practice of dribbling out information to keep customers interested -- and its wares in the news -- Microsoft did not spell out whether the apps would be free to customers who already have a smartphone or tablet and who upgrade their devices to Windows 10. The company also did not say how much the apps would cost to install on larger tablets or touch laptops.

Unless Microsoft turns its Office business model completely inside-out between now and the apps' release, it will give smartphone and smaller tablet owners Office for Windows 10 for free, perhaps limiting the apps' features in some ways for larger tablets and touch PCs, and tie full functionality on the latter pair to an Office 365 consumer or corporate subscription.

Users who want to use the apps for business purposes -- no matter the device -- will need an Office 365 small business or enterprise subscription.

Those are the licensing terms for Office on the iPhone and Android smartphones, and for the iPad and the impending version for Android-based tablets.

Touch-based Office apps for Windows have been on Microsoft's to-do list for years.

In September 2011, then-CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that the company was working on "Metro-izing" Office, telling Wall Street analysts, "You ought to expect that we are rethinking and working hard on what it would mean to do Office Metro style." Metro was the brand that Microsoft once used to describe the tile- and touch-based interface that debuted on Windows 8 in 2012.

More than a year ago, Ballmer -- by that time on his way out -- promised "what I would call not just a touch-enabled, but a touch-first user interface ... for Windows 8," and set the release order as Windows first, iPad second. Ballmer's replacement, Satya Nadella, flipped the order when he introduced Office for iPad in March. Since then, Windows users have been waiting for word on something similar for them.

Microsoft's White said that a sneak peek of Office for Windows 10 -- not Office 2016 -- would be partnered with a Windows 10 Technical Preview update "in the coming weeks," which fits with what operating system chief Terry Myerson said Wednesday was a February timetable for a first beta of Windows 10 for smartphones.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

The best office apps for Android

Which office package provides the best productivity experience on Android? We put the leading contenders to the test

Getting serious about mobile productivity
We live in an increasingly mobile world -- and while many of us spend our days working on traditional desktops or laptops, we also frequently find ourselves on the road and relying on tablets or smartphones to stay connected and get work done.

Where do you turn when it's time for serious productivity on an Android device? The Google Play Store boasts several popular office suite options; at a glance, they all look fairly comparable. But don't be fooled: All Android office apps are not created equal.

I spent some time testing the five most noteworthy Android office suites to see where they shine and where they fall short. I looked at how each app handles word processing, spreadsheet editing, and presentation editing -- both in terms of the features each app offers and regarding user interface and experience. I took both tablet and smartphone performance into consideration.

Click through for a detailed analysis; by the time you're done, you'll have a crystal-clear idea of which Android office suite is right for you.

Best Android word processor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Mobile Systems' OfficeSuite 8 Premium offers desktop-class word processing that no competitor comes close to matching. The UI is clean, easy to use, and intelligently designed to expand to a tablet-optimized setup. Its robust set of editing tools is organized into easily accessible on-screen tabs on a tablet (and condensed into drop-down menus on a phone). OfficeSuite 8 Premium provides practically everything you need, from basic formatting to advanced table creation and manipulation utilities. You can insert images, shapes, and freehand drawings; add and view comments; track, accept, and reject changes; spell-check; and calculate word counts. There's even a native PDF markup utility, PDF export, and the ability to print to a cloud-connected printer.

OfficeSuite 8 Premium works with locally stored Word-formatted files and connects directly to cloud accounts, enabling you to view and edit documents without having to download or manually sync your work.

Purchasing OfficeSuite 8 Premium is another matter. Search the Play Store, and you'll find three offerings from Mobile Systems: a free app, OfficeSuite 8 + PDF Converter; a $14.99 app, OfficeSuite 8 Pro + PDF; and another free app, OfficeSuite 8 Pro (Trial). The company also offers a dizzying array of add-ons that range in price from free to $20.

The version reviewed here -- and the one most business users will want -- is accessible only by downloading the free OfficeSuite 8 + PDF Converter app and following the link on the app's main screen to upgrade to Premium, which requires a one-time $19.99 in-app purchase that unlocks all possible options, giving you the most fully featured setup, no further purchases required.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android word processor: Google Docs
Google's mobile editing suite has come a long way, thanks largely to its integration of Quickoffice, which Google acquired in 2012. With the help of Quickoffice technology, the Google Docs word processor has matured into a usable tool for folks with basic editing needs.

Docs is nowhere near as robust as OfficeSuite 8 Premium, but if you rely mainly on Google's cloud storage or want to do simple on-the-go writing or editing, it's light, free, and decent enough to get the job done, whether you’re targeting locally stored files saved in standard Word formats or files stored within Docs in Google's proprietary format.

Docs' clean, minimalist interface follows Google's Material Design motif, making it pleasant to use. It offers basic formatting (fonts, lists, alignment) and tools for inserting and manipulating images and tables. The app's spell-check function is limited to identifying misspelled words by underlining them within the text; there's no way to perform a manual search or to receive proper spelling suggestions.

Google Docs' greatest strength is in its cross-device synchronization and collaboration potential: With cloud-based documents, the app syncs changes instantly and automatically as you work. You can work on a document simultaneously from your phone, tablet, or computer, and the edits and additions show up simultaneously on all devices. You can also invite other users into the real-time editing process and keep in contact with them via in-document commenting.

App: Google Docs
Price: Free
Developer: Google

The rest of the Android word processors
Infraware's Polaris Office is a decent word processor held back by pesky UI quirks and an off-putting sales approach. The app was clearly created for smartphones; as a result, it delivers a subpar tablet experience with basic commands tucked away and features like table creation stuffed into short windows that require awkward scrolling to see all the content. Polaris also requires you to create an account before using the app and pushes its $40-a-year membership fee to gain access to a few extras and the company's superfluous cloud storage service.

Kingsoft's free WPS Mobile Office (formerly Kingsoft Office) has a decent UI but is slow to open files and makes it difficult to find documents stored on your device. I also found it somewhat buggy and inconsistent: When attempting to edit existing Word (.docx) documents, for instance, I often couldn't get the virtual keyboard to load, rendering the app useless. (I experienced this on multiple devices, so it wasn’t specific to any one phone or tablet.)

DataViz's Docs to Go (formerly Documents to Go) has a dated, inefficient UI, with basic commands buried behind layers of pop-up menus and a design reminiscent of Android's 2010 Gingerbread era. While it offers a reasonable set of features, it lacks functionality like image insertion and spell check; also, it's difficult to find and open locally stored documents. It also requires a $14.99 Premium Key to remove ads peppered throughout the program and to gain access to any cloud storage capabilities.

Best Android spreadsheet editor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
With its outstanding user interface and comprehensive range of features, OfficeSuite 8 Premium stands out above the rest in the realm of spreadsheets. Like its word processor, the app's spreadsheet editor is clean, easy to use, and fully adaptive to the tablet form.

It's fully featured, too, with all the mathematical functions you'd expect organized into intuitive categories and easily accessible via a prominent dedicated on-screen button. Other commands are broken down into standard top-of-screen tabs on a tablet or are condensed into a drop-down menu on a smartphone.

With advanced formatting options to multiple sheet support, wireless printing, and PDF exporting, there's little lacking in this well-rounded setup. And as mentioned above, OfficeSuite offers a large list of cloud storage options that you can connect with to keep your work synced across multiple devices.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android spreadsheet editor: Polaris Office
Polaris Office still suffers from a subpar, non-tablet-optimized UI, but after OfficeSuite Premium 8, it's the next best option.

Design aside, the Polaris Office spreadsheet editor offers a commendable set of features, including support for multiple sheets and easy access to a full array of mathematical functions. The touch targets are bewilderingly small, which is frustrating for a device that's controlled by fingers, but most options you'd want are all there, even if not ideally presented or easily accessible.

Be warned that the editor has a quirk: You sometimes have to switch from "view" mode to "edit" mode before you can make changes to a sheet -- not entirely apparent when you first open a file. Be ready to be annoyed by the required account creation and subsequent attempts to get you to sign up for an unnecessary paid annual subscription.

Quite honestly, the free version of OfficeSuite would be a preferable alternative for most users; despite its feature limitations compared to the app's Premium configuration, it still provides a better overall experience than Polaris or any of its competitors. If that doesn't fit the bill for you, Polaris Office is a distant second that might do the trick.

App: Polaris Office
Price: Free (with optional annual subscription)
Developer: Infraware

The rest of the Android spreadsheet editors
Google Sheets (part of the Google Docs package) lacks too many features to be usable for anything beyond the most basic viewing or tweaking of a simple spreadsheet. The app has a Function command for standard calculations, but it's hidden and appears in the lower-right corner of the screen inconsistently, rendering it useless most of the time. You can’t sort cells or insert images, and its editing interface adapts poorly to tablets. Its only saving grace is integrated cloud syncing and multiuser/multidevice collaboration.

WPS Mobile Office is similarly mediocre: It's slow to open files, and its Function command -- a vital component of spreadsheet work -- is hidden in the middle of an "Insert" menu. On the plus side, it has an impressive range of features and doesn't seem to suffer from the keyboard bug present in its word-processing counterpart.

Docs to Go is barely in the race. Its embarrassingly dated UI makes no attempt to take advantage of the tablet form. Every command is buried behind multiple layers of pop-up menus, all of which are accessible only via an awkward hamburger icon at the top-right of the screen. The app's Function command doesn't even offer descriptions of what the options do -- only Excel-style lingo like "ABS," "ACOS," and "COUNTIF." During my testing, the app failed to open some perfectly valid Excel (.xlsx) files I used across all the programs as samples.

Best Android presentation editor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
OfficeSuite 8 Premium’s intuitive, tablet-optimized UI makes it easy to edit and create presentations on the go. Yet again, it's the best-in-class contender by a long shot. (Are you starting to sense a pattern here?)

OfficeSuite offers loads of options for making slides look professional, including a variety of templates and a huge selection of slick transitions. It has tools for inserting images, text boxes, shapes, and freehand drawings into your slides, and it supports presenter notes and offers utilities for quickly duplicating or reordering slides. You can export to PDF and print to a cloud-connected printer easily.

If you're serious about mobile presentation editing, OfficeSuite 8 Premium is the only app you should even consider.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android presentation editor: Polaris Office
If it weren't for the existence of OfficeSuite, Polaris's presentation editor would look pretty good. The app offers basic templates to get your slides started; they're far less polished and professional-looking than OfficeSuite's, but they get the job done.

Refreshingly, the app makes an effort to take advantage of the tablet form in this domain, providing a split view with a rundown of your slides on the left and the current slide in a large panel alongside it. (On a phone, that rundown panel moves to the bottom of the screen and becomes collapsible.)

With Polaris, you can insert images, shapes, tablets, charts, symbols, and text boxes into slides, and drag-and-drop to reorder any slides you've created. It offers no way to duplicate an existing slide, however, nor does it sport any transitions to give your presentation pizazz. It also lacks presenter notes.

Most people would get a better overall experience from even the free version of OfficeSuite, but if you want a second option, Polaris is the one.

App: Polaris Office
Price: Free (with optional annual subscription)
Developer: Infraware

The rest of the Android presentation editors
Google Slides (part of the Google Docs package) is bare-bones: You can do basic text editing and formatting, and that's about it. The app does offer predefined arrangements for text box placement -- and includes the ability to view and edit presenter notes -- but with no ability to insert images or slide backgrounds and no templates or transitions, it's impossible to create a presentation that looks like it came from this decade.

WPS Mobile Office is similarly basic, though with a few extra flourishes: The app allows you to insert images, shapes, tables, and charts in addition to plain ol' text. Like Google Slides, it lacks templates, transitions, and any other advanced tools and isn't going to create anything that looks polished or professional.

Last but not least, Docs to Go -- as you're probably expecting by this point -- borders on unusable. The app's UI is dated and clunky, and the editor offers practically no tools for modern presentation creation. You can't insert images or transitions; even basic formatting tools are sparse. Don't waste your time looking at this app.

Putting it all together
The results are clear: OfficeSuite 8 Premium is by far the best overall office suite on Android today. From its excellent UI to its commendable feature set, the app is in a league of its own. At $19.99, the full version isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for, which is the best mobile office experience with next to no compromises. The less fully featured OfficeSuite 8 Pro ($9.99) is a worthy one-step-down alternative, as is the basic, ad-supported free version of the main OfficeSuite app.

If basic on-the-go word processing is all you require -- and you work primarily with Google services -- Google's free Google Docs may be good enough. The spreadsheet and presentation editors are far less functional, but depending on your needs, they might suffice.

Polaris Office is adequate but unremarkable. The basic program is free, so if you want more functionality than Google's suite but don't want to pay for OfficeSuite -- or use OfficeSuite's lower-priced or free offerings -- it could be worth considering. But you'll get a significantly less powerful program and less pleasant overall user experience than what OfficeSuite provides.

WPS Mobile Office is a small but significant step behind, while Docs to Go is far too flawed to be taken seriously as a viable option.

With that, you're officially armed with all the necessary knowledge to make your decision. Grab the mobile office suite that best suits your needs -- and be productive wherever you may go.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

7 things on Microsoft's 2014 to-do list

7 things on Microsoft's 2014 to-do list
Microsoft needs to make Nokia work, get Office on iOS, and find Ballmer's successor in 2014

2013 was a busy year for Microsoft, which announced that CEO Steve Ballmer will leave the company after 33 years, upgraded its controversial Windows 8 platform, doubled down on its Surface tablets, reveled in the success of Office 365, and successfully tweaked Windows Server. But there’s more to do in 2014.

Here’s a look at seven things Microsoft should put on its to-do list for 2014.

No. 1: Make Nokia work

Microsoft could have just strengthened its partnership with Nokia, perhaps investing heavily in the company to become a major shareholder with sway over what Nokia does. Instead it ponied up $7.2 billion to own it. In buying the company Microsoft gains total control over its hardware products – phones primarily but also tablets.

The Nokia deal falls in line with Microsoft’s aim to be a products and services company. It did a pretty good job with its Surface hardware, even when it had virtually no tablet-manufacturing experience. Nokia is already credited with making good phones, but they’re saddled with the Windows Phone operating system, which has yet to capture the imagination of buyers like Android phones and the iPhone have.

+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD A complete list of Outlook 2014 stories +

However, measuring the success of the Nokia deal isn’t about whether its hardware can unseat these more popular devices. Worldwide there are vast markets for low-end phones in markets where cell service is still taking hold and where Windows Phone can make headway, says IDC analyst Ramon Llamas.

Nokia makes the Asha family of low-end feature and smartphones -- three of which the company claims are the top three selling phones of their kind in India, the Middle East and Africa, which are considered undeveloped markets that hold vast potential for new sales. Nokia announced three new Asha smartphones this fall to sell in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East (two of them in Latin America as well) for between $69 and $99.

Windows Phone is doing well enough that it might finish the year as the No.3 phone operating system - albeit at a great distance behind Android and iOS - and beat out Blackberry, says Llamas. In the last quarter Apple sold about 34 million iPhones versus about 7 million Windows Phones, he says. “They’re not falling by the wayside, I have to give them credit,” he says.

Owning Nokia will enable faster decision making and turnaround times on innovations, he says, potentially making the phones more competitive. If Microsoft can differentiate Windows Phone from high-end competitors, it could make advances in the developed markets of North America, Japan and Europe. “Android and Apple are entrenched but not 100% locked down forevermore among users,” Llamas says.

Nokia tablets could also be a boon. Microsoft’s Surface RT tablets sold well at drastically reduced prices as the company tried to unload inventory in preparation for selling its successor, Surface 2. That’s a device without cellular connectivity. Nokia already sells a tablet based on the Windows RT operating system plus 4G wireless for $399 through a service-plus-hardware deal with AT&T. It’s also announced Lumia 2520, a Windows RT tablet with LTE for $499.

Nokia’s Lumia 1520 and lower priced 1320 phablets – smartphones with screens between five and seven inches – give Microsoft an immediate entry into the relatively new phablet market that last quarter accounted for 22% of all smartphone sales, according to IDC.

No. 2: De-Ballmer the company

With Steve Ballmer on his way out as CEO, Microsoft needs to leave him behind. The new boss must quickly state the company’s goals and set up an internal structure that can convincingly support those goals.

That’s important not only for achieving the goals, but also for convincing investors of the company’s ability to execute. Microsoft’s stock price has jumped up and down over the past month on rumors about who will be the next CEO and when that person will be announced.

Despite the company’s continued enormous profits during Ballmer’s tenure as CEO -- $5.2 billion last quarter, up 17% from the same quarter last year – critics have been calling for his replacement for years, and his successor must address some of the reasons they’ve been so vocal.

Clearly Ballmer did a lot of things right, but his missteps hurt critics’ perception of him. Ultimately a lot of complaints had to do with speed.

"Hey, dude, let's get on with it," Microsoft board member John Thompson told Ballmer earlier this year, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. "We're in suspended animation."

The conversation was about Microsoft taking measures to catch up to Apple’s and Google’s consumer products, but it was emblematic of some other notable snafus during Ballmer’s 13-year tenure as CEO. Microsoft participates and is expected to lead in markets ranging from enterprise software and services, to consumer software and services, to games, to tablets, to phones, to search. Its competitors are well heeled giants focused on fewer products on which they bring to bear enormous amounts of cash and expertise.

But under Ballmer, Microsoft missed the main wave of the mobile revolution in both tablets and phones, offering products in both areas that just didn’t capture customers and have gone through iteration after iteration trying to catch up. And as Ballmer himself says, his biggest failure under his leadership was Windows Vista, which he says in a Fortune article took too long – eight years – to get right with the shipment of Windows 7.

Ballmer took steps to address this lack of agility earlier this year with a corporate reorganization and management overhaul that has been playing out over the intervening months. Those changes have to be endorsed and taken on by his replacement or rejected and reworked if the company hopes to move more quickly in such a variety of realms.

The new boss also needs to make sure that when products do launch, that they’re ready. Under Ballmer, Windows 8 was an ambitious change from Windows 7 that would have taken some getting used to no matter what because of intentional differences from its popular predecessor. But only 10 months later with the release of Windows 8.1 did Microsoft address problems that should have been resolved at launch.

Microsoft entered the computer hardware market with its laptop/tablet Surface line but wound up writing down $900 million in Surface RT losses, something the company can afford financially but that hurt its reputation in a market it wants to dominate. Its Surface RT (now Surface 2) looks like an attempt to better Apple’s iPad by adding Microsoft Office to a tablet. It’s solid hardware but is doing poorly because of price, and a dearth of apps that customers actually want.

These are part of Ballmer’s legacy, and the stigma should leave when he does. His replacement needs to make clear that nothing Ballmer left behind is sacred.

No. 3: Build on the success of Office 365

Microsoft successfully bet that customers would rather buy Office as a service that is available from multiple machines – including phones - and is constantly updated than to buy it as software they have to install and upgrade as they go along. It comes along with cloud storage, too.

Office 365 scored 1 million users back in May. That doubled by the end of October, a strong start and an important part of transitioning users from software buys to continuing services. At $100 per year for Office 365 Home Premium, that’s already a significant revenue stream that seems to be soaring. It helps validate the company’s definition of itself as a services and devices operation.

No. 4: Make Office available for iOS

Businesses are dealing with Apple devices as part of their bring-your-own-device programs, and it’s time Microsoft acknowledged it.

Since corporate customers are not limiting their employees to using Windows-only devices, Microsoft should not freeze out those other devices from using their popular productivity suite. Popular isn’t not a guaranteed status, and there are competitive alternatives -- such as Google Apps -- that Microsoft should not ignore. It’s better to sell a product to Apple customers than it is to ignore them and drive them to buying someone else’s product.

No. 5: Chase down Amazon Web Services with enhancements to Azure

Microsoft has been chipping away at Amazon Web Services, racking up impressive numbers of new customers and producing a constant beat of new features for its own cloud service. This includes multi-factor authentication for services, adding big-data analytics based on Hadoop, auto-backup to Azure, and creating a public cloud for government (planned).

No. 6: Get more Windows 8 apps

The Windows Store boasts more than 135,000 applications, but no single one of them nor even a collection of them is compelling enough to cause customers so choose Windows 8 in order to use the apps.

Microsoft needs such apps and needs them soon. Think the next Angry Birds.

Without an A-list of apps, customers will seek other platforms that have what they want without giving Window 8 much consideration despite its other merits.

The company has been luring apps and game developers for more than a year to create apps and games for Windows 8, offering deals on tools and attractive splits of revenue when their products are sold through the Windows Store. It’s even given away Windows 8 laptops and tablets to attendees at its developer conference.

It has also partnered with third parties for Windows 8 versions of popular games. One example is Disney, which in some cases has released Windows 8 versions of its games before releasing them for Android -- a step toward making Windows 8 relevant.

Its efforts seem to be working. In August, user-interface developer Infragistics came up with the 100 must-have apps that are available for iOS and found that just 54 of them were available for Windows 8. The 100 were a smattering of social-site apps such as Google+, services such as HBO GO and PayPal, and resource sites like IMDB. Now, though, 72 of those apps are available for Windows 8.

Coming up with the next Angry Birds requires inspiration and innovation in a way that can’t be plotted out, but Windows 8 needs that kind of lightning to strike.

Beyond that Microsoft needs compelling business apps to be written for Windows 8, taking advantage of its touch-friendliness. Expanding the usefulness of Windows 8 by making workers more productive when they use it will make it more attractive.

No. 7: Promote Windows 8.1 for business

It may already be too late, but as Windows XP fades into end of support this April, Microsoft needs to do all it can to push those XP diehards into buying Windows 8 machines as a replacement.

Figures indicate that Windows 7 is gaining in popularity while Windows 8 is dipping, according to NetMarketshare statistics.

One remedy for this could be pushing Windows 8 into large businesses, which would not only boost sales but also promote consumer popularity by forcing workers to become familiar with the operating system.

But adopting Windows 8 wholesale into enterprises is a longshot given that the touch aspects that make Windows 8 superior in some cases to Windows 7 aren’t needed to do many corporate jobs. Those that lend themselves to touch, such as mobile workers and sales staff, could transition to Windows 8 while others remain on Windows 7, but that’s a long process. It could result in businesses hanging on to Windows 7 until Microsoft irons out the kinks, much as they did by hanging onto Windows XP, skipping Vista, and ultimately adopting Windows 7.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com