MrSeb writes with an excerpt from an Extreme Tech article on the Windows 8 release timeline: “…A Microsoft vice president announced that the Windows 8 beta would begin in late February 2012. The beta will be feature-complete and will allow developers to begin listing their apps in the Store. The timing of the beta is curious, and ultimately quite telling. … The first public build of Windows 8 … emerged in mid-September 2011; by the time the beta rolls around, it will have been ruminating for more than five months. If we follow the timeline forward — it took 10 months for Windows 7 to go from beta to public release — then it’s possible that Windows 8 might arrive just in time for Black Friday 2012, or perhaps not in 2012 at all. Will its late arrival affect its chances of cutting out a swath of the tablet market from Apple and Android? Or will Windows 8 be different enough that it will do well, no matter when it arrives?”

In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View the original here:
Will Windows 8 Be Ready For Release In 2012?