At Microsoft's Partner Conference 2014, COO Kevin Turner was his usual self, being energetic and passionate about the future path for Microsoft. One area that he touched on briefly was about the next generation of Windows and about how the scope of the product has been defined.
While Turner didn't give hint at a release date for the next-generation OS, he did say that it will have a strong focus on the enterprise, including some of its new features. Turner also said that the next generation of Windows is being crafted based on worldwide consumer feedback. Finally, there will be API support for TV and PPI displays, which will allow developers to truly write an app once and display it everywhere.
Don't overlook the importance of this development: That's one API for all Microsoft screens; the dream used to be three screens and the cloud, now it is all screens, everywhere.
While Turner kept beating around the bush and would not give any information about when the next generation would be released, to no surprise, he made it clear that the OS is in development and based on these comments, we suspect that they are well past the infancy stages of defining the scope of the project.
While Microsoft would never say that it doesn't love Windows 8, Turner was clear that the company is going to build a quality OS the best way that it knows how. This likely means that they are going back to their Windows roots and focusing on productivity (as CEO Satya Nadella stressed last week) rather than on a hybrid solution.
When you combine this information to that of what Microsoft said at Build, it's quite clear that they want customers to know that the next generation of Windows is coming together quick and that they are moving away from the strict hybrid model that was defined by Windows 8.
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