The new Windows 8 operating system will be released in October 2012. This was announced at the Worldwide Partner Conference, which opened on July 9 in Toronto, by Tami Reller, vice president of Windows.
In August 2012, the company will release an RTM version of Windows 8, which will be a harbinger of the final October release, and in early autumn, sales of the first devices running on the new operating system will start in retail chains.
Windows 8 was first announced by Microsoft in June 2011. To date, three preview versions have been released: Developer Preview in September, Consumer Preview in February and Release Preview in May.
The Windows 8 operating system will be released in several versions. One of them will be Windows RT, which is designed specifically for devices based on ARM processors. The main difference between Windows 8 and the previous OS will be the new Metro user interface, which debuted on the Windows Phone 7 mobile platform.
Recall that in early July, Microsoft has already offered users an update to Windows 8 from previous versions of operating systems – Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 for $ 39.99.