During the quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that the company is working on Windows 9 which will be a unified operating system for all devices.
Rumours about Microsoft focusing on a new major version of Windows, has turned true and the surprising bit is that the company is planning on one-version-fits-all concept.
Windows 9 will include features from all the versions and will be optimized for all devices with different screen sizes. Nadella said that Microsoft is trying to streamline the next version from three operating systems into a single converged version.
Nadella said that the company has single team with a common architecture. Though it will be a totally new experience, he confirmed that multiple editions of the OS will be offered.
Microsoft is also trying to bring in the concept of universal apps which could benefit both developers and users as all their apps can work smoothly on different devices.
Microsoft is expected to bring in the most missed feature, Start Menu, with the next OS. The company promised at the BUILD 2014 that the Start Menu might come back with a future update. There are no signs of it yet with the recent updates and it is believed that Microsoft is saving it for its next version of Windows OS.
Two versions of Windows 9 is expected to be released – one of them later this year and the other early next year. The virtual voice assistant Cortana is also expected to come with both versions as the company has promised to bring it to the PC versions in the next few months.
