Windows 8 to compete with iOS and webOS?

Place yourself, for a moment, in Microsoft’s position. You’re a multibillion-dollar international corporation that made its name (and dominating market share) in desktop operating systems and productivity software. Along the way, you developed a game console that’s managed to hold its own against Sony and Nintendo, along with a variety of other products to multitudinous to name here.

But things have been a little shaky of late, thanks to a rising emphasis on mobile devices and hardware. While rivals such as Apple and Google have profited enormously from consumer and business interest in smartphones and tablets, Microsoft is widely perceived as struggling to find solid footing in this new paradigm.