Windows 8 to Go on Sale on October 26: Microsoft

Windows 8 is the latest upgrade of the Windows operating system that is designed specially to work better with touch screens and tablet computers. Microsoft says Windows 8 will be put on sale Oct 26, 2012. It was announced simultaneously at its official blog as well as its annual sales meeting this Wednesday.

Windows 8 is being released as a downloadable upgrade on Oct 26 for PC owners. The Release to Manufacturing version of the Windows 8 OS will be released the first week of August.

PC, tablet and Smartphone makers will be allowed to sell computers with the new OS on October 26th. Users of Windows 7 and Vista will be able to download it at a cost of $40. Microsoft Corporation has been known to charge a lot more for OS upgrades so this price is a refreshing surprise. Also, people who bought their Windows 7 computers on or after 2nd June will be able to upgrade theirs for $15. Microsoft revealed its schedule during its annual Windows Partner conference in Toronto.

According to Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer, the launch of its Windows 8 OS “is simply the biggest deal for this company in at least 17 years.” The last time Microsoft was this revved up about an OS was the launch of the game-changing Windows 95 operating system. He added, “It’s the glue; it’s the foundation of everything Microsoft is built on.

In a previous announcement, Microsoft had given a tentative date for “late October” for launching Windows 8. So this statement wasn’t much of a surprise as the president of the Windows and Windows Live unit at Microsoft, Steven Sinofsky, announced the more specific date at the company’s annual sales meeting. Despite that, many Microsoft partners were anxious about the release of Windows 8 as many want to bundle the latest update with their computers just in time for the holiday buying season.

This release date for Windows 8 coincides with the beginning of the holiday shopping season as everyone starts looking out for the perfect Christmas gifts. Industry experts are speculating that the Microsoft Surface Tablet will also be launched around the same time or may be even the same date.

Some previous rumors indicated that Microsoft would no longer supply retail box copies of Windows 8, except for some upgrade DVDs, but Microsoft didn’t talk about store availability in its blog post on the topic. The company also revealed that it will ship the Windows 8 operating system simultaneously to 109 countries in 231 languages.