2012: The Year Of Microsoft Windows?

Microsoft Windows Ces

First Posted: 10/01/12 17:08 GMT Updated: 10/01/12 17:40 GMT

Could 2012 be the year of Microsoft Windows? With the number of killer Microsoft announcements in these early days of the new year, it's beginning to look that way.

Kinect for Windows will arrive next month, the company has confirmed. That means we can all be Tom Cruise in Minority Report soon enough*.

This will not be a re-hash of the Kinect already enabled on Xbox 360. A note on the box clearly reads "PC optimized - not for use with Xbox 360."

The latest Windows phone, the Nokia Lumia 900 was also announced today at CES. This super slick follow up to the Nokia Lumia 800 is Nokia's, and therefore Windows', most serious assault on the modern smart phone market.

The gorgeous phone is a serious rival to the indomitable Apple iPhone, and more than likely a preferred option for PC users who haven't bought into the Mac experience.

The other hot Windows product coming out of of CES is the super slim Ultrabook. Intel displayed a number of Ultrabooks.

The aesthetically pleasing PC laptops bring elements of Apple's famously slick industrial design to the PC market.

For anyone who has to carry a laptop around for work or presentations, these are a back saver, and for that reason alone could be the product of the year.

In case you wondered, Intel coined and trademarked the term Ultrabook, and is strictly defined as "ultra responsive, ultra sleek, and ultra stylish devices that are less than an inch thick and wake up in a flash."

These announcements are a triple threat to all comers in the consumer tech game, mainly because for a change, they deliver what Windows users want. All this Windows joy and we're only 10 days in.

*only minus the weird couch jumping and air pumping.

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Could 2012 be the year of Microsoft Windows? With the number of killer Microsoft announcements in these early days of the new year, it's beginning to look that way. Kinect for Windows will arrive ...
Could 2012 be the year of Microsoft Windows? With the number of killer Microsoft announcements in these early days of the new year, it's beginning to look that way. Kinect for Windows will arrive ...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
trinity
11:42 PM on 01/11/2012
Not sure of what kind of year Microsoft will have...my PC froze up and crashed about 4 times today...it's going to be a cooooold year.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Anthony Dodd
Pssst THE GOP IS OVER
09:26 PM on 01/11/2012
"The gorgeous phone is a serious rival to the indomitable Apple iPhone, and more than likely a preferred option for PC users who haven't bought into the Mac experience."

The prior draft of this line read:

"The gorgeous phone is a serious rival to the indomitable Apple iPhone, and more than likely a preferred option for PC users who refuse to buy into the Mac experience in any way. PC users who mock any Apple innovation until it arrives in their world years later for a lower price and inferior experience."
09:07 PM on 01/11/2012
I heard that the only people in the Microsoft stores are the ones looking for a place to sit down and admire what they just bought at the Apple Store.
09:06 PM on 01/11/2012
No. Microsoft does not bring new exciting products to market, but they do make the Zune.
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08:29 PM on 01/11/2012
Uh - NO. The year of Microsoft would be the year that Apple declares Bankruptcy and no longer supports any of its products. Go back in time - use your flux-capacitor and look up the headlines that have popped up in the tech PR machine, (a fully funded wing of Microsoft Inc) wherein the phrase "Microsoft's [fill in Apple Product] killer" is used. Amazing isn't it? Since 1987 there has been at least one Apple Killer thingy from Windows 3 ( i mean 3.1, or 3.1.1) and then 2000, and NT and Main St. and - gee I forget. There was Movies for Windows, and Zune and Windows Phones and now - another "serious rival for iPhone" which will be on the phone platform that has never been a rival. I am glad Microsoft keeps trying. I just wish the press would remember how wonderful the products have actually been over the years. Microsoft - putting the MAZE in amazing for all these years.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
eds123
My micro-bio is less filling and tastes great!
07:03 PM on 01/11/2012
According to this article 2012 is going to be the year Microsoft products completely mimic Apple products.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
alkamm
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
04:00 PM on 01/11/2012
A "serious rival" to the "indomitable Apple IPhone" seems to be something like saying a politician that can't be beat has serious rivals. Hmm. Watch the rhetoric!
05:19 PM on 01/11/2012
But unlike US politics, where it's an all-or-nothing game, Microsoft and Apple are players in a market where every point of market share is a huge number in a growing pie. Competition is good. Even the most diehard iOS fan has to admit it would be a nightmare if Apple ran the whole mobile show unopposed. It's nice to see Microsoft as an underdog for a change, too; It makes the creative juices flow, instead of just squeezing revenue.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Drew Puli Wolf
dog trots freely in the street and sees reality
09:39 PM on 01/11/2012
Apple IPhone has a 29% market share in the US, Androids is almost double at 53%. It looks like Apple is not only being beaten, but crushed!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
alkamm
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
10:35 PM on 01/11/2012
I think I wouldn't bet against Apple, but it's good that Androids can save people some money who don't need all the features Apple has created.
01:06 AM on 01/12/2012
It's not Apple vs Android imo, it's Apple vs Samsung Vs Nokia vs Motorola vs Sony-Ericcson etc etc. So Apple has 29% of the market, sure, how are the others doing when they're not all lumped together? (I have an ipod classic and iphone 3GS/4s, those are all the apple products I care to own outside of maybe a new phone in a few years, so I'm far from a fan boy, just bringing up a point that nearly every droid fan seems to ignore)