Windows Phone 7? That’s yesterday’s news, apparently. During Intel’s latest earnings call, CEO Paul Otellini revealed plans for Windows 8 phones. Wait a minute, what?
During the call, Otellini said: “The plus for Intel is that as they unify their operating systems we now have the ability for the first time: one to have a designed-from-scratch, touch-enabled OS for tablets that runs on Intel that we don’t have today. And secondly we have the ability to put our lowest-power Intel processors running Windows 8, or “next-generation Windows” into phones, because it’s the same OS stack…”
Erm, this is all well and good Mr Otellini, but where does this leave the brand spanking new Windows Phone 7 OS, and the Windows Phone brand altogether? What about the consumers, albeit not many of them, who have parted with their cash to get a taste of Ballmer’s hyped OS?
I wouldn’t get worried just yet, as Windows 8 isn’t due out until the end of 2011, and is unlikely to make an appearance on smartphones until 2012, if at all. Despite Otellini comments, CNet predict that Windows 8 will be designed specifically for tablets, much like Google‘s recently launched Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), also guessing that Intel could simply be planning to put its Windows 8-capable processors in smartphones.
