Jeremy Hobson: At a conference today in California, Microsoft is expected to give developers a sneak peek of its latest operating system. The company is hoping the new system — with the flashy working title Windows 8 — will get developers excited enough
to keep pumping out applications for it.

Marketplace’s Jennifer Collins reports.

Jennifer Collins: Microsoft Windows may run on around 90 percent of computers, but the PC has become kind of boring.

Laura Didio: Microsoft Windows is your father’s Oldsmobile.

Tech analyst Lara Didio says Microsoft’s newest operating system is expected to rev up faster and work across multiple devices.

Didio: Now they’re saying, look, if you want to run Windows on a tablet.

Or on a smartphone.

Didio: Whatever you want, we’re there for you.

Kurt Scherf of consulting group Parks Associates says that consistency across platforms is attractive to developers who want:

Kurt Scherf: The ability to write an application once and then it gets deployed across PC, tablet and smartphone.

Which Microsoft can then use to lure consumers with — potentially — cool new applications for tablets and smartphones. Scherf says it’s unlikely Microsoft will overtake Apple’s dominance in mobile, but:

Scherf: As a strong number two, I think that’s something to be proud of.

There are estimates that sales of mobile devices will triple over the next few years. So maybe it is something to be proud of.

I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.