As Windows 8 Nears Public Debut, Microsoft Ditches “Metro” Brand (P.S. It Doesn’t Matter)

Microsoft is abandoning its "Metro" branding - the branding that refers to the clean, modern, tiled layout that defines many of its consumer-facing products including Windows 8, Windows Phone, Xbox 360, Office 2013 and more. For over a year, Microsoft has talked about "Metro" in press conferences, blog posts, tutorials, and guides. The reason for the change has to do with a dispute between Microsoft and a European partner, German retailer Metro AG, who has threatened legal action for infringing on its "Metro" trademark. Oops. Microsoft, of course, is positioning this news as no big deal, saying that "Metro" was always intended to be an internally used code name, not something related to the company's commercial branding efforts. (Right. Which is why Microsoft is transitioning to new branding without, you know, actually having a new name picked out yet.) But Microsoft may be right on one thing: it's not really a big deal. Remember what happened with the iPad?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/oVPgOK8sTZg/

METHODE ELECTRONICS MENTOR GRAPHICS IMS HEALTH IMATION IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS