Microsoft yesterday confirmed Windows "Blue," an upgrade to Windows 8, but analysts remained uneasy about how the faster release cadence that Blue represents will be digested by businesses.
"Microsoft is going to be on an annual release cycle, and enterprises will have to figure out how to get used to it," said Frank Gillett of Forrester Research.
Blue, the code name bandied about for months by Microsoft-centric bloggers like Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet and Paul Thurrott of Super Site for Windows, exists, said Frank Shaw, the head of Microsoft's communications group, on a company blog Tuesday. He did not say, however, when the upgrade will debut, whether Microsoft will follow its traditional path of offering public previews to customers prior to its launch, or even whether it will come with a price tag.
Most, however, believe that Blue will land this summer, likely after the BUILD 2013 developers conference gives Microsoft a chance to show it off. BUILD 2013 will take place June 26-28 in San Francisco.
And it's probable that Blue will inaugurate an annual upgrade schedule, where Microsoft issues smaller-scale updates to its newest OS at a faster pace than the historical average of around three years between Windows editions.
Shaw was clear about Blue's purpose and how it fits into Microsoft's self-professed transition from a software developer to what CEO Steve Ballmer last year dubbed a "devices and services company."
"This continuous development cycle is the new normal across Microsoft," Shaw said. Microsoft, he added, has "a clear view of how we will evolve the company" with "plans to advance our devices and services, a set of plans referred to internally as 'Blue.'"
How that kind of schedule -- annual, or as Shaw put it, "continuous" -- plays to Microsoft's core customers, including enterprises and government agencies, is a big question.
Large organizations are notoriously conservative in their adoption of upgrades, and for good reason: They worry that without comprehensive testing an update could break a critical workflow.
This week's updates to three core Windows 8 apps provided a perfect example. Microsoft's refresh of the Calendar app disabled synchronization with the cloud-based Google Apps for Business suite. Any firm running Google Apps that told workers to apply the Calendar update would have found the latter useless.
Nonetheless, Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said this year is too early to find out whether enterprises could adopt to the faster release tempo.
"Commercial hasn't started deploying Windows 8 yet," Moorhead said. "Maybe in a couple of years, when Windows 9 is out and both enterprise and consumers are deploying the operating system, an update like Blue -- that adds features to the UI -- could change, for example, training [in businesses]. But it's way too early to know if [the faster pace] is a positive."
