Microsoft might make us wait another year for the Windows 8 Start Menu

MICROSOFT WILL NOT BRING BACK the Start Menu in Windows until 2015, according to sources.

Despite a further update to Windows 8.1 being due this summer, it now appears that the Start Menu will not be a part of that.

According to Mary Jo Foley at ZDnet, Microsoft has decided to hold off on the return of the Start Menu until the so called "Threshold" build, which will either become Windows 8.2 or Windows 9, depending on marketing decisions.

When a preview of the revised Start Menu made an appearance at this year's Microsoft Build conference in San Francisco, it overshadowed the more immediate announcement of Windows 8.1 Update 1, which introduced features designed to appeal to keyboard and mouse users who had been alienated by the touch-centric design of Windows 8.

The new Windows 8.1 Start screen mixes the missing and widely lamented feature from Windows 7 with the tiled environment of the Windows 8 Metro interface and Windows Phone, showing that the company isn't ready to abandon its new direction altogether.

With Windows 8.x still languishing in market share compared to its predecessor Windows 7, which continues to grow, surpassing 50 percent market share during May, the Redmond company's reticence to bring back the Start Menu is somewhat surprising.

We're a little stumped as to why Microsoft has chosen this strategy. Surely the Redmond company wants to win back as much lost goodwill as it can, and further delays will do nothing to change that.

With the many third party add-ons that bring the Start Menu of old back, we have to assume that the decision must be based on misguided marketing. After all, if everyone else has managed to bring back the Start Menu, how hard can it be?

Microsoft has yet to comment on the report

Microsoft's New CEO - Satya Nadella

Microsoft released a video late Monday introducing the world to Satya Nadella, a 46-year-old who has been at the company for 22 years and is the man chosen to lead after Steve Ballmer’s exit.

“The one thing that I would say that defines me is  I love to learn,” Nadella said in his first interview as Microsoft’s chief. (He will be the technology giant’s third CEO ever.) “I get excited about new things. I buy more books than I read or finish.”

The appointment of Nadella, a native of Hyderabad, India, makes him the most powerful Indian-born tech executive in the world, according to Reuters. It also ends a months-long search that reportedly included such high-profile executives as Ford CEO Alan Mulally and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.

Nadella ran Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, where he was responsible for the firm’s ambitious “Cloud OS” effort to move software and storage from on-site computers to the Internet. Previously, Nadella was president of Microsoft’s $19 billion Server and Tools Business, where he’s credited with spearheading the company’s push toward cloud-computing. Over the last two decades Nadella has worked closely with Ballmer and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 from Sun Microsoystems, according to the company. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Now Nadella faces a stark set of challenges. Microsoft has struggled to keep up with Apple and Google in the booming mobile market. Despite pouring billions of dollars into mobile software and gadgets like the Surface tablet, the company has not been able to find a formula to compete successfully with Cupertino and Mountain View. Last fall, Microsoft announced a $7.2 billion deal to buy Nokia’s mobile phone business.

The latest U.S. mobile device and software market numbers underscore the uphill battle Microsoft faces. Microsoft’s mobile software accounts for a just 3.6% of the market, compared to 81% for Google’s Android platform and 12.9% for Apple’s iOS, according to research firm IDC. And Nokia is nowhere to be found on IDC’s list of the top global smart phone manufacturers, which is dominated by Samsung and Apple.