Microsoft ran out of tricks and decided to upgrade their new operating system, Windows 8. The result was the Windows 8.1 update. The name indicates that Microsoft sees this not as an update, but as an improvement to the Windows 8 OS. The Windows users and developers have been downloading Windows 8.1 OS update preview from the official Microsoft websites for the past few months hoping to see that Microsoft has indeed rectified all the Windows 8 blunders.
Why Microsoft needed to upgrade their OS barely a year after its release
Microsoft realised that Windows 8 sales is not going to pick up unless they paid heed to the customer grievances and made some serious changes to the new OS. Many industrial experts started seeing similarities between the new Windows 8 OS and the old less-successful Microsoft Vista.
In the case of Windows Vista, the cool changes made to the OS interface did not convince the Windows users to abandon the simple and functional Windows XP OS. The same is the case when you pit the new Windows 8 OS against its immediate predecessor, Windows 7.
The fact that Windows 7 and Windows XP are the most widely used Windows operating systems today should be an eye-opener to Microsoft and shed some light on why their immediate successors failed – Windows Vista and Windows 8. Microsoft cannot afford to let that happen during a time when the industry landscape is shifting more towards tablets and smart phones, where the Google Android freeware OS reigns supreme.
Downloading Windows 8.1 update
Microsoft is providing the Windows 8.1 update free to all the current Windows 8 users. To them it would be just an update, which they can download from the Windows Store. As far as the Windows 7 OS users are concerned, they can choose either to upgrade to Windows 8 and then update to Windows 8.1 or directly to the Windows 8.1 OS.
Microsoft would slowly taper off the sales of the less popular Windows 8 OS by the end of 2014. After that, only the Windows 8.1 OS would be available in the market.
Microsoft thinks that their quick decision to release an upgraded version barely one year after the launch of the new OS might just save Windows 8 from going the Windows Vista way. Will this strategy pay off? Let us wait and see.
