Microsoft may have inadvertently confirmed some details on Windows 8 today when Windows chief Steven Sinofsky posted a list of teams working on the next-gen operating system. The post, titled “Introducing the team,” was published on Microsoft’s recently inaugurated Building Windows 8 blog and revealed that the next-gen platform will indeed have an app store as well as possible Kinect integrations.
In the post, Sinofsky explained how the Windows project is fairly broad and is comprised of a set of smaller projects with various teams that work together and independently. The work is organized into “feature teams” that take charge of specific features of the platform. For Windows 8, the company has about 35 feature teams with 25 to 40 developers in each working together with test and program management.
But what’s interesting is that in the full list of teams, one is called “App Store,” making this the first time that Microsoft has confirmed an app store for Windows 8. Microsoft did previously have a marketplace, but it will be interesting to see if in Windows 8, this becomes branded as Windows App Store instead. Additionally, there’s a team called “Human Interaction Platform,” which sounds awfully like some sort of Kinect feature. This could mean integrated motion and voice controls in Windows 8.
Below is the full list of teams:
App Compatibility and Device Compatibility
App Store
Applications and Media Experience
App Experience
Core Experience Evolved
Device Connectivity
Devices & Networking Experience
Ecosystem Fundamentals
Engineer Desktop
Engineering System
Enterprise Networking
Global Experience
Graphics Platform
Hardware Developer Experience
Human Interaction Platform
Hyper-V
In Control of Your PC
Kernel Platform
Licensing and Deployment
Media Platform
Networking Core
Performance
Presentation and Composition
Reliability, Security, and Privacy
Runtime Experience
Search, View, and Command
Security & Identity
Storage & Files Systems
Sustained Engineering
Telemetry
User-Centered Experience
Windows Online
Windows Update
Wireless and Networking services
XAML