MIcrosoft Debuts Win8 At WSJ's D9 Conference

Oppenheimer has published a report following Microsoft's MSFT Win8 demo at WSJ's D9 conference. In the report, Oppenheimer writes, "Wednesday, after the close, Steve Sinofsky, the head of MSFT's Windows division, demoed Windows 8 at the WSJ's D9 conference. As expected, the product pulls heavily on the tile user interface MSFT introduced on the Windows Phone 7 OS and fully embraces the touch user experience (has a "fuzzy" mode that should allow apps written for use with a mouse to work well in a touch environment). However, it will also allow users to return to the traditional Windows UI when they see fit. On the development side, MSFT will provide programmers with a software development kit that is focused on HTML5 and JavaScript. We see this as a very positive move that should help to create an eco-system of new apps when the OS is launched in 2012. Sinofsky was clear that the ARM version of the OS would NOT have a compatibility mode so existing programs will need to be re-written. That said, it is clear Office will run natively on ARM when the product ships."