Microsoft One

Microsoft is the technology giant behind Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and XBOX. They also have other services including Outlook, Skype and Office however for this article I’m just going to focus on the first 3 I mentioned.

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 have extremely similar operating systems despite one of them being a smartphone OS and the other being a desktop OS. Even the XBOX One interface has similar features to Windows 8 (such as the snap feature, notifications and live tiles).

One Windows OS on a Nokia Lumia

I wonder if, in the future, we could be seeing Microsoft making one operating system for all of its devices. Of course there would be optimisations and customisations differing the 3 however they could be extremely similar – as they already are. If I was put in charge of this movement at Microsoft this is what I would do.


Windows Phone
I would start with the normal Windows 8 platform, get rid of desktop mode and make the Start screen flow from top to bottom (rather from left to right). The apps would be the Windows 8 apps however they would open in the smallest mode (so they would display like the small screen when you snap 2 apps together). I would also get rid of some of the many gestures as they will be hard to do on a small smartphone screen.

Desktop/Tablet
I would keep Windows 8 as it is, with desktop mode and all the gestures. It is still unable to make phone calls like a smartphone however that is because it is a desktop computer and, well, not a smartphone.

Future of XBOX?

XBOX One
Since the XBOX One will need to process up to 48 HD frames-per-second it will need a fast processor so it can handle the extreme graphics. I would remove desktop mode and instead of touch-screen and mouse gestures I would make them work on the XBOX controller.