What world needs now is 'instant on'

This week the world will see the way Microsoft will work for the next few years.

At least, those people who decide to upgrade will.

Microsoft is holding its first build conference, an amalgamation of several other events, in California to highlight the new features in its forthcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Windows, remember, still runs on about 90% of the world's computers.

Like Apple, which has imported many of the features of its mobile operating system, iOS, Microsoft is expected to unveil something resembling its Windows Phone 7, which runs on smartphones.

It's a remarkable comment on the world's software industry that mobile devices are profoundly influencing laptop and desktop computers. It shows how mobile the world is becoming and how much we're entering what the industry is calling the "post-PC era".

It began with the large-touch-screen smartphones and has continued with tablet devices as people's interactions with technology and the internet become ever more touch-based and portable. The interface has pleasingly been simplified and now revolves around content and apps, and, thankfully, ease-of-use.

Predictions for what will be in Windows 8 include a start screen with big tiles, like that of Windows Phone 7, that display things like Facebook snd Twitter feeds, e-mail and SMSs, your calendar, tasks, the weather, and any number of other feeds.

I've been playing with a smartphone running Windows Phone 7 and it is light years ahead of the cumbersome previous incarnation, Windows Mobile. I used to joke that second prize was two Windows Mobile phones. Windows Phone 7 is a significant enough step forward that it is the operating system Nokia - still the world's largest maker of cellphones - is pinning its hopes on for its smartphones.

As Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rightly points out, it's no longer just about the device or the operating system - it's also the ecosystem. This means the hardware and the operating software, and the all-encompassing ecosystem of apps and content that go with them.

Apple's iPhone is a great device but the vast majority of people who buy one are just as interested in the hundreds of thousands of apps that run on it. The same is true of users of the Android operating system.

In this context, one of the most interesting developments is that apps will be written using HTML5, the newest version of the software used by the internet and, increasingly, for writing the new generation of apps. It can do remarkable things, but pointedly it's a gift to the programmers who write the code for the applications. If they can develop their apps for both laptops and smartphones using HTML5, which can intelligently adjust the way it displays information according to the specs of the screen of the device, it will make their lives easier.

Another feature is a much faster start-up - sometimes referred to by the phrase "instant on". It seems such an insignificant feature in the scheme of things when you have a computer that can surf the internet, send e-mail, edit photographs, create websites, get you onto Facebook and any number of the other daily computing tasks we now take for granted.

Microsoft says its research shows that "57% of desktop PC users and 45% of laptop users shut down their machines rather than putting them to sleep".

This means they start their computers from scratch each time. Not surprisingly, restart times have become a crucial feature - in no small part because of the instant on nature of tablets (and Apple's much-adored MacBook Air laptops).

Microsoft, and now Nokia, need some instant on.

• Shapshak is editor of Stuff magazine