Microsoft have had a bit of a bruising over the last few years. They tried replacing Windows 7, which was (and I think still is) a good platform, with the white elephant Windows 8.
They have watched the explosion of the smart phone from the sidelines, with minimal market share of Windows phones.
The Nokia acquisition which was supposed to be Microsoft's way into the Mobile market didn't work out, and according to the BBC, it wrote off $7.5bn cost and laid off thousands of Nokia employees.
So everything now seems to be hinged on Windows 10. Apparently the last ever major operating system launch from Microsoft. The plan moving forward is to continually develop it by gradually updating it over months and years.
Sounds to me like the standard Patch Tuesday when my lappie grinds to a halt to download the latest barrage of patches from Microsoft
Windows 10 will be a cross device platform, from headsets, mobiles, desktops and tablets and future "wearable technology". Flashing bras and musical boxers?
The idea being that it will be easier for developers to design programs and applications for a single platform.
I do like this bit from the BBC article:
The previous version of the operating system - Windows 8 - was so badly received the company leapfrogged making Windows 9 altogether in an attempt to distance itself from its previous outlook.
So in otherwords you may have only suspected it, but Windows 8 is officially rubbish
Windows 10 launch is a 'new era', says Microsoft boss - BBC News