Real threat to both the current iPad 2

Microsoft Windows 8 is supposed to be a real threat to both the current iPad 2 and the upcoming iPad. During most people understand that it resembles the tiled interface that runs on Windows Phone 7, and during most people as well know that Windows 8 was developed for a touch-screen interface, the fact is that there aren't that many Windows tablets or touch-screen interfaces lying around so you can try Windows 8.

The Windows 8 Preview from Microsoft's Windows 8 page

So I downloaded the Windows 8 Preview from Microsoft's Windows 8 page, to see what this is like. Since this is intended to be a tablet operating system designed for a touch-screen, I wanted to have some idea what I was doing when I started seeing all of those newly minted Windows 8 tablets when I got to CeBIT.

The first thing you should know is that you're probably not going to be using this version of Windows 8 in your business. This is a consumer version that's heavy on entertainment, including games, music, videos and social networking. However it has the same Metro interface that you'll see on tablets when they arrive. That's what I wanted to get used to using.

Fortunately, the interface wasn't something totally foreign. I've been trying out a Nokia Lumia 710 running Windows Phone 7 for the last few weeks so anyway I knew what to expect when the Windows 8 home page appeared on the screen previously me. It looks a lot like the screen on the Nokia, only a lot larger. Clearly, I didn't have a touch-screen.

Mouse if you wish

You can use Windows 8 with a mouse if you wish, and you'll wish you had a touch-screen when you do. It's so much easier to simply move tiles back and forth with a swipe of your finger than to do the same thing with a mouse pointer. It's as well a lot nicer to get the desktop to appear by simply touching the lower left corner of your screen than to hover the mouse pointer there until the computer realizes you're there, and shows a tiny representation of the home screen, upon which you click during the mouse pointer is on the whole in the corner and not on the image of the screen that's appeared.

Once you've started using the mouse, the transition is fairly easy, nevertheless it would be a lot easier with the tip of your finger. You can as well get to the standard Windows Desktop, which now appears as an application for which there's a separate tile. It looks a lot like the Windows 7 desktop, except that the start button is missing. All those things that you used to invoke with the start button are available, yet you need to go to the "Computer" tile to find them. As you can see, this new version of Windows will take some getting used to.

The real reason for using the Consumer Preview edition is that this is the interface you're going to see when Windows Tablets start arriving. Once that happens, Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 will have a lot of commonality, and in some ways, both present a very intuitive interface, unless you've been a power Windows user since the days of Windows 3.1. If you fit that description, at that time you're likely to feel lost for a during. The standard Windows 8 pages are nothing like the desktop you're used to, and even the "Desktop" is missing the one thing you could always count on-the start button.

What Microsoft plans to use to battle both the iPhone

But this is what Microsoft plans to use to battle both the iPhone and the iPad. In the right environment-meaning something otherwise a keyboard and mouse-it's in fact a slick, so then-thought-out way to use a device you're holding in your hand.

At this point, it's impossible to know whether Windows 8 will as a matter of fact bring the battle to iOS. It's easy to see the potential, however whether that potential is realized remains to be seen. The Windows Phone 7 interface on a Nokia Lumia is very slick and very intuitive, yet when translated to the mouse and keyboard environment of a computer, it's nevertheless a little clunky. As a matter of fact, it's a lot clunky; things frequently don't work as you expect, and a number of functions are missing. However it's early in the process, the software is still in accordance with development, and it's very possible that Microsoft will deliver a tablet and computer operating system that's as nice as the one on the phone. If that happens, you'll be glad you started learning Windows 8 now, because you'll have a lot of users to support in a few months.