Microsoft’s Windows 8 pitch for businesses: It’s like Windows 7, but better

Windows 8 is very understandable from a consumer angle, given its function as a tablet device and one that is receiving new music and video components, but its business use case is more murky. Given its radical redesign, it has been the, if unstated, conventional wisdom that businesses are set to be less interested in it, being more comfortable with conservative technology choices.

Of course, that makes how Microsoft pitches the operating system to said businesses quite important, as the company is trying to set the tone for software that hundreds of millions of end users, and millions of companies will use.

The sharp folks at NeoWin noticed a critical piece of this branding, nestled in the ‘Windows 8 Release Preview Product Guide for Business.’ After explaining the tablet strength of Windows 8, and walking through a few features, Microsoft makes the following remark, which is telling:

This says two things: Microsoft knows how well it did with Windows 7, and is looking to use that strength to convince companies that Windows 8 will only continue that momentum. And, of course, that Microsoft understands how difficult it will be to move companies from Windows 7 to 8, when they are so content where they are.

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Now, Microsoft is going to hit up the press with endless stories detailing how this business, or that business uses Windows 8 to great effect! But the real story will be how many licences are sold, to enterprise-level corporate clients. That figure will be the real tale.