Microsoft unveiled its Windows 10 operating system as a replacement to the massively unpopular Windows 8.
The operating system skipped a number and was named Windows 10 as the company looks to make a huge step forward in unifying how its customers work across all platforms, including desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones.
Windows is still the most used operating system on personal computers, with 1.5 billion users worldwide, despite the relative failure of Windows 8. However, what Microsoft will try to do with Windows 10 is to recapture the lucrative enterprise market, which largely ignored Windows 8 and kept using Windows 7 or the outdated Windows XP.
According to Microsoft head of operating systems Terry Myerson, Windows 10 will be the company's "greatest enterprise platform ever," as the company looks to improve on the 20 percent rate of the enterprises that upgraded their systems to Windows 8, as mentioned by tech research company Forrester.
Windows 10, which was internally known as project "Threshold," represents a new kind of operating system for Microsoft, as the OS looks to be a unifying factor across all kinds of computers, especially mobile devices.
"Windows 10 adapts to the devices customers are using, from Xbox to PCs and phones to tablets and tiny gadgets," said Myerson, adding that the unexpected name signifies the leap that the company made with the operating system.
Microsoft is facing the challenge of creating excitement for the Windows operating system amid the increase in popularity of Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS, both for mobile devices. While Microsoft continues to dominate desktop computers with Windows, the company's presence in mobile devices greatly lags behind the two major mobile operating systems.
According to research company Gartner, from the virtual monopoly that Microsoft has with Windows a decade ago, Windows can now only be found on a total of 14 percent of devices.
"It's a bold statement for Microsoft to make," said FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives. "So far there's not as much meat on the bone as we would have wanted, although it's still very early days."
Ives is referring to an early version of Windows 10 that was demonstrated by Microsoft official Joe Belfiore at the San Francisco event where the operating system was unveiled. The demonstration showed two modes for Windows 10, with one optimized for touchscreen tablet computers and the other for desktop PCs with a keyboard and mouse. Users are allowed to switch between the two modes depending on the device being used.
Myerson did not specify when Windows 10 will be released to the public. However, a technical preview of the operating system will be available for download next week.
Myerson added that Microsoft thought of naming the new operating system as Windows One to underscore the unification of all Microsoft products within the OS, but he noted that the name has already been used.
