As The Verge reports, AMD president and CEO Lisa Su spoke quite definitively in AMD’s first-quarter earnings report that the company is working hard to account for the launch of Windows 10 and the expected wave of new consumer device purchases after it.
Unfortunately, it seems as though Su may have got a little carried away and inadvertently revealed the expected launch time of Windows 10 as the end of July — only three months away.
Seeking Alpha’s transcript of the report shows that she said: “What we also are factoring in is, you know, with the Windows 10 launch at the end of July, we are watching sort of the impact of that on the back-to-school season, and expect that it might have a bit of a delay to the normal back-to-school season inventory build-up.”
It is evident that AMD is anticipating that Windows 10 is going to change the market for back-to-school purchases, because of its release towards the end of the school term.
Microsoft has only previously said that Windows 10 will launch in 190 countries and 111 languages “this summer.” It looks as though AMD just spilled the beans on when “this summer” actually is though.
If the “end of July” is correct then there is actually only a very short time left until Windows 10 is done, as far as Microsoft is concerned. As the finished build must be released to manufacturers much sooner than the public launch, it is safe to assume that the company is now only tweaking and applying bug fixes. If it’s anything to go by, Windows 8 launched on October 26th 2012, a whole three months later than it looks like Windows 10 will.
Whether July will also see a release of Windows 10 for phones is unknown. The current build for phones is very unstable and there is a lot of work to do. Microsoft has previously said not to expect a mass-rollout of the update as carriers will need to make modifications to the software. Therefore, it is possible that Windows 10 will arrive on phones after tablets and computers.
Of course, without any official word from Microsoft this is all speculation and we cannot actually confirm that Windows 10 will launch in July. But as the second-largest processor manufacturer for laptops and computers alongside Intel, it is safe to assume that AMD is likely to have to access to the most up-to-date information on Microsoft’s plans. An official release date for Windows 10 is expected to be announced at the Microsoft BUILD developer conference next week.
