Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer on Wednesday reiterated that the company's upcoming Windows 8 will be a "reimagining" of the operating system, and said that every other product will "pivot" around the OS.
"It's all about the cloud," he said during a keynote presentation at Microsoft's BUILD conference in Anaheim, California. All the changes the company is making to Windows Live, Phone, Server, and more "pivot around the changes we're making in Windows."
Windows 8 is about "building on the new technology foundation of Windows, and taking it in new and unexpected directions to reach new hardware, to reach the cloud, to create new developer opportunities."
Microsoft released a developer preview of Windows 8 last night, and the OS has a very Windows Phone-esque interface. Today, the company also released developer previews of Visual Studio 11, Windows Server 8, and new capabilities on the Windows Azure platform.
In recent weeks, Microsoft has acknowledged that the desktop on Windows 8 will essentially be just another app. Ballmer, however, said today that the "notion of re-instrumenting apps" for the cloud is still in "very early days."
Nonetheless, "each and every one" of Microsoft's businesses are "re-designing their systems [and] moving to the cloud as their fundamental business model," Ballmer said. "Each one is asking, 'What kind of app scenarios can I build given that I have these new cloud services?'"
"We're all in," Ballmer continued. "We're re-tooling all of what we do" around Windows 8.
In 2011, there will be 350 million Windows devices sold. "There is no phone, no tablet, no operating system on the planet that will ship 350 million units of anything other than Windows," Ballmer said.
That, he said, creates an unprecedented opportunity for developers; basically, a user base of 500 million Windows PCs that can be upgraded to Windows 8 and take advantage of new apps. "Betting on us and the work we're doing will be an essential and valuable part of everything you do."
Windows 8 will have an app store known as the Windows Store. It will allow developers to sell their apps anywhere Windows is sold worldwide, from games to productivity tools. Microsoft promised a particularly rich experience ("flicker-free action") for games on Windows 8, thanks to the underlying power of DirectX 11.
There hasn't been too much talk about Windows Phone at BUILD given that the Mango update had a high-profile launch of its own several months ago, Ballmer said. He acknowledged that Windows Phone is still struggling; "we're still early and relatively lower than the other guys in terms of volume."
When Nokia releases its first Windows Phone device later this year, that will "help lead Windows Phone into new geographies and price points and form factors in ways that I think will be very important," Ballmer said. "You'll see us continue to invest in and improve upon a very fine product, but still a product that's important for us to get, if you will, fully appreciated by consumers around the world."
On the hardware front, Ballmer denied that Microsoft will choose between Intel or ARM. "It's going to be Intel and ARM for various usage scenarios," he said.
For more, see PCMag's hands on with the developer preview and the Samsung testing PC and the slideshow above. Also check out our unboxing of the preview PC.