PowerPoint 15 defaults widescreen, and what this means for Windows 8’s hardware

We’ve been covering Office 15 for some time now, and have been generally receptive to its design changes. If you want a full dose of what is coming, the ever connected Paul Thurrott has a good rundown on a few of the forthcoming features that PowerPoint, Word, and OneNote 15 will contain.

His recent post on PowerPoint caught our eye, however, for a somewhat different reason. We quote: “With the industry-wide move to widescreen displays and projectors, PowerPoint 15 finally defaults to 16:9 widescreen-style presentations. And don’t worry if you’re stuck on a 4:3 display or projector: You can easily switch to this style too, of course.” 

Reading tea leaves, and pulling too much conclusion from a little information can be dangerous, but is too fun to avoid. This is what we think is going on: Microsoft is marshalling all its software forces widescreen, and that means that you are never going to see Windows 8 on an iPad shaped tablet. This relatively minor PowerPoint change underscores the fact.

Instead, you are going to see tablets along the lines of what was handed out at the BUILD conference: a widescreen behemoth. Of course, if you think on the new Start Screen, that Metro’d collection of Live Tiles, it’s obvious that a widescreen display would be a pleasant method of viewing as many apps as possible.

So, our prediction is that it’s a 16:9 world from here on out for Redmond. Suck it, 4:3.