Technology | Will the new Windows help Microsoft back into the legal sector?

Microsoft has been toiling over the development of its latest version of windows, giving it the imaginary title of Windows 8. We have been witnessing windows releases for many a year now so there is nothing earthshattering about a new version. This time though, while the system itself looks and feels different to the previous version, it's the strategic direction in which Microsoft is taking it that marks what is arguably the biggest change in this ubiquitous desktop operating system.

Windows 8 will differ from all its ancestors by providing an apps store for users. This of course is not new to Apple or Android users, but it is for Microsoft customers and developers, and it is a quantum shift from the more or less free market development that has existed until now.

As a historical reference, Microsoft's liberal treatment of third party development was partly responsible for it eradicating any threat from the likes of Apple back in the eighties and nineties. The ease of developing applications for Microsoft compared to other systems provided the platform for Microsoft to monopolise the global PC operating system market and push Apple to the brink of destruction. Most windows software is distributed from outside of Microsoft's financial control, albeit with a nod to some development rules.

Apple's resurgence, closely followed by Google exponential growth, has been partly based around apps stores. These are places where most if not all the available applications for the system are bought through a centralised source administered by the system owners. For users, this provides a particularly easy way to find what you are looking for. It is then easy to buy, download, install and maintain that application, it all emanating from the one place.

For developers the situation is not necessarily as rosy. Having to comply with both a restrictive set of development rules, and a restricted set of development tools, is not everyone's ideal way to build software. In the case of Apple's apps store software, there is also a restriction on the hardware platform you have to use.

Once you have an application, and have worked out the rules of publication to the apps store, developers are then faced with the prospect of having to pay a percentage on their income from selling software to the store owner, which can be as much as 30% of the sale price.

Of course there are advantages to developers of making their wares available in an apps store. For one, it is a global market place, and under most circumstances there is little possibility of an individual or small developer reaching a global audience under their own steam. There are many stories of success of those who have used this to great effect. You may not have heard of Rovio, but you are likely to have heard of, or played one of its apps, Angry Birds. This app is reported to have cost around £100,000 to develop, but has sold more than 250m copies through the ?Apple apps store.

Microsoft's late venture into the apps store market is probably a reaction to the fact that Apple and Google have stolen a march on them. And an attempt to ward of the accompanying market threat from both. Apple's market capitalisation is now greater than Microsoft's and many industry commentators expect Google to follow suit. Not something anyone could have predicted ten years ago.

I have no doubt that Windows 8 will be a commercial success for Microsoft, but it is starting to look like the end of the road for their income stream for desktop operating systems. Apple are selling more PCs than ever, and Google's Chromebook is likely to take another slice of Microsoft's pie, but it is the gradual move to cloud computing that is likely to deplete this income stream for the Redmond giant.

Will it affect law firms?

Most modern law firms run on a diet of Microsoft operating systems at both desktop and server level. The emergence of cloud based utility computing is a looming threat to this market, and Microsoft is doing its utmost to lead a charge to persuading users to move to its cloud services, with Windows 8 appearing to be part of this push.

The new version of Windows will also be optimised to run on touch screen devices among other things. This is not a moment too soon. Microsoft until now have not attacked this market with any intent, and their overall market position has suffered as a result. The availability of tablet and mobile phone handsets based on Windows 8 should provide software developers with a potential transition path for their software to be made available to portable devices.

This in turn should help legal software suppliers, as the majority of desktop legal applications are Windows based. And one could speculate that this in turn will provide some useful additional facility for mobile lawyers. The lingering doubt is that it might be too little too late, given Apple and Google's foothold generally, but at least it will make for an interesting year. It could also provide some form of boost for a flagging legal software market. There has not been a great deal of innovation in the legal software market of recent, and some vendors have held off developing mobile applications on alternative platforms to Windows