Microsoft’s chief Steve Ballmer at a Gartner Symposium claimed that Windows 8 would be like a major gamble for his company. Analyst John Pescatore asked him about the next “riskiest product bet” and the answer was simply “the next release of Windows”. It is not clear if the answer referred to the importance of a successful core product or if the operating system would represent a radical break.
What is known is that the design will be a refinement of the operating system and will provide an Apple-like experience, including fast startup and automatic logout once the system hibernates, as well as a hardware button to trigger system restore. Cameras are supposed to help logging in. There will also be an ambient light sensor to support brightness auto-tuning and other settings resembling to MacBooks and iOS devices.