Opinion: Microsoft is taking a huge risk with Windows 8, and that's OK

Microsoft is ready to make a bold shift with the launch of Windows 8. Windows 8 is a dramatic departure from its predecessors, and Microsoft seems to be putting a lot on the line. Windows 7 is phenomenal, and people inherently resist change, so Windows 8 is a risky proposition. Frankly, though, its a risk Microsoft has to take.

Risk is a part of life. Not only is risk a part of life, but its an essential part of evolving and maturing as opposed to just stagnating. Dont take my word for ithere are some quotes:

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. Jim Rohn

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T.S. Eliot

Technology changes rapidly. For decades, those changes all revolved around improvements in PC hardware, or ways to use a PCchanges that drove the success of the Windows operating system, and Microsoft as a whole. Since the smartphone and tablet revolution hit, though, Microsoft has found its relevance fading fast.

The landscape has changed. Over the past few years, the smartphone and tablet have replaced the traditional PC as the primary device for a wide variety of tasks. Tablets take the mobile productivity potential of notebook PCs, and make it easier to work on the go with a device thats thinner, lighter, and lasts longer on a single charge.

Apple introduced the iPad just two and a half years ago, and it has already sold 100 million of them. Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed this week that Apple sold more iPads during the quarter ending June 2012 than any PC manufacturer sold of its entire lineup.

iPads dont run Windows, and thats a problem for Microsoft. Its a problem that Microsoft has recognized, though, and Microsoft is working hard to adapt. Microsoft is looking beyond 2012 at where computing is headed, and it has put all of its chips on Windows 8 and the future of Microsoft rather than stubbornly clinging to its former glory.

Of course, iPads dont run Windows isin many casesa problem for the iPad as well, and that is an opportunity that Microsoft is trying to capitalize on. The iPad also doesnt have Microsoft Office. Smartphones and tablets are phenomenal tools for a wide variety of tasks, but when it comes to real-world productivity there are some things you just need a real PC for.

Many expected Android to fill the void and offer a more open, customizable, PC-esque approach to tablets. Android tablets have managed to carve out some market share by sheer volume and force of will, but they have not caught on as hoped.

The door is still open for Microsoft to step in. Windows 8 is different. But, Windows 8 is a necessary step for Microsoft to take in order to adapt and evolve and move the Windows ecosystem in a direction that can surviveand hopefully thrivein this new era.

What choice did Microsoft have? With each passing year, technology continues to evolve and it becomes harder and harder for Microsoft to shift gears and change direction. Obstinately clinging to an outdated and dying concept of what personal computers are or how theyre used would eventually lead to the death of Microsoftor at least the Windows operating system.

Windows 8 is risky. But risk can be good. Ill close with one more (slightly paraphrased) quote:

Often the difference between a successful [company] and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated riskand to act. Andre Malraux