Microsoft has recently unveiled new details about their newest edition of Windows that is scheduled to be officially launched in 2012. Basically, this new OS will come with a very modified interface in order to be used on tablets. The company says the new Windows 8, which borrows features from Windows Phone, will be much more optimised for touch screen gadgets.

Microsoft says the new Windows 8 will keep close with latest market changes and will be able to run on various terminals, from the tablets with under 10-inch screen, up to the latest desktop PCs. Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 at an event in Taipei (Taiwan) with live demonstrations on a tablet, a laptop and a classic desktop PC.

The new OS codenamed Windows 8 will come with features from Windows 7 Phone to be compatible with touch-screen devices. Icons are large and with a colourful style, following the ones from the current smartphones, for being easily accessed from sensitive touch screens.

A big change is that the future Windows will be able to run on both processors built on the ARM architecture (produced by companies such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, used especially on smartphones) and also on the x86 processors (Intel and AMD products used on PCs).

ARM processors are used for ultra-portable devices and this is a sign that Microsoft is reacting to new trends that favor small gadgets and devices coming with high-end processors.

According to a new released study by research firm StatCounter, Microsoft XP has 46% of the operating system market, Windows 7 owns 33%, and Vista is about 12%. We should wait and see what impact Windows 8 will have on the operating system market, however this not earlier than 2012.

For the last few months, many voices claimed that two of the most popular social websites nowadays – Facebook and Skype – are to be “united”, of course, for an approximately $4 billion sum. Even if this transaction will not complete, Facebook and Skype already started sharing some “goodies”, each from each other – while Facebook created an application that allows users to call their friends through Skype service, Skype added a “News Feed” from Facebook.

Although this merge could literally mean a great threat for Google’s Gtalk (imagine Facebook extending its services from only text to text and voice, that would be huge for the social media environment), it seems that another huge bidder tries to get its claws on Skype. Microsoft,  as we mentioned, are set to buy Skype for an incredible amount of money – that’s $8.5 billion! We are talking here about over 3 times more money than eBay paid in 2005 and this could be a great step forward for both Skype and Microsoft.

Why this move, you might probably ask yourself? The answer is quite simple: guys at Microsoft want a larger piece of Internet searchers with their search engine – Bing – and what other way to start this other than acquiring the most popular online voice service available nowadays? With tens of millions of users worldwide, this could be a huge hit for the Internet industry and could shake some big players like Google.

If you’ve not already started to look at your Bing search engine strategy then the latest news from America offers a good prompt. It was recently announced that in the coming months Yahoo will be integrating Microsoft’s mobile organic and paid listings in the US and Canada.

Just now they are in a testing phase but it could be that the first organic search listings are rolled out in September. Yes, this is in America and it’s not happening today, but it means that Bing is likely to become a much bigger player in the search engine market and so it’s vital that all businesses being a Bing optimisation strategy.

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