Microsoft announces Windows 8 on track for August RTM

July 9, 2012 by 2 Comments

Today at their Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announced that Windows 8 was on track for an August RTM, meaning that it will reach general availability by the end of October.

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This is what was posted on the Windows team blog today:

Today in Toronto, Canada, at Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference, Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller spoke to thousands of partners from around the world. She shared some exciting new details regarding Windows that I wanted to pass along.

For the first time, we provided details on Windows 8 availability. Tami confirmed that Windows 8 is on track to Release to Manufacturing (RTM) the first week of August. For enterprise customers with Software Assurance benefits, they will have full access to Windows 8 bits as early as August. Additionally, she noted that RTM is when we’ll be turning on the commerce platform so that developers can start earning money for their apps – we’ll have more to share on the Windows Store for developers blog soon. Of course, right now with the Windows 8 Release Preview, all apps are still free for people to try.

Tami went on to say that Windows 8 will reach general availability by the end of October! This means that new Windows 8 and Windows RT PCs will be available to buy and upgrades will be available starting in October. She also mentioned that that Windows 8 will be available in 109 languages across 231 markets worldwide.

Finally, Tami announced a new milestone with Windows 7. There is no question that Windows 7 is the bestselling operating system in history – and the number of licenses sold keeps growing. In her remarks, Tami announced that more than 630 million Windows 7 licenses have been sold to date – and that more than half of enterprise desktops today are running Windows 7.

For Windows 8 hardware demos from our partners, I recommend watching the replay of the keynote, which will be available here later today.

So what do you think? I have mixed emotions about it – on the one hand I think it’s great on a tablet or slate device, and on the other I am not yet convinced on a desktop!

Only time will tell I suppose.

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About Andrew Edney

This post was written by who has written 6077 posts for Connected Digital World. I am the owner and editor of this site. I have been interested in gadgets and tech since I was a little kid. I have also written a number of books on various tech subjects. I also write for The Huffington Post. And I am honoured to be a Microsoft MVP for Windows Home Server since January 2008.
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  • fnj_c

    I don’t like it on a desktop either… I think with the surface Microsoft have shown exactly what windows 8 is meant to run on. It (metro) is being forced on the desktop user so there will be less of a learning curve when we all buy our Surface tablet.

  • http://twitter.com/jam3ohio Jim McCarthy

    I’ve been running on the desktop in a dual boot with Win7 now for a few weeks, and it has grown on me. I especially like the 30 second boot time, and that is with 7200rpm hard drives in the system. It’s been a culture shock, but I think I will upgrade the old HP Mini that we have laying around with XP on it and finally get some use from it.
    I can’t see my employer rolling this out, though, unless it is on a tablet…the changed user experience will require re-training…