Recent reports showed that the PC business has seen its worst quarter ever, with sales falling by 10 percent.  The main reason behind this is that consumers are now more interested in purchasing smartphones and tablets, rather than buying new PCs. As smartphones and tablets continue to encroach on the PC market, Microsoft finds itself in hot waters.

Not only is the mobile market beating the PC to a pulp, Google is becoming a real threat for Microsoft. Google has managed to infiltrate the PC business, first with its Chromebooks’ increasing market share, and more recently at CES 2014, where Lenovo and HP unveiled Android-based PCs.

Google has the potential to overtake Microsoft in the PC business, and the main reason for this is Windows 8.  Yes, the operating system that people grew to hate even before it officially launched.

As SiliconANGLE’s Mike Wheatley pointed out, Microsoft needs to do what Google does and be unafraid to infiltrate other platforms to get more people to enjoy its products and services, as this could lead to more consumers adopting Windows-based devices.  Wheatley also stated that Microsoft needs to go back to its roots and focus on making its software side better for users.  And Microsoft may just be doing that.

According to reports, Microsoft will be launching an update to Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 this coming April, but that’s not the big news. Microsoft is next said to be planning the launch of Windows 9, codenamed Threshold, for April 2015.

According to Paul Thurrott, a Windows watcher, Microsoft will be “distancing itself from the Windows 8 debacle,” so instead of Threshold being a major Windows 8.1 update, it will be a completely revamped version of the Windows platform.

Plans for the Windows 8.1 update and Threshold will be unveiled at Microsoft’s BUILD 2014 conference, which will be held in April. Even so, developers cannot expect to be given an alpha version of Threshold at the event as Microsoft will not start working on it until afterwards.

What we can expect with Threshold is a completely redesigned Metro UI.  No word yet as to what this major redesign will be, but Thurrott states that, “a windowed mode that works on the desktop,” will be a part of that plan.

Aside from that, Threshold will uphold Microsoft’s vision of streamlining its platforms from Windows to Windows Phone to Xbox.

“Threshold will include updates to all three Windows OS platforms (Xbox One, Windows and Windows Phone) that will advance them in a way to share even more common elements,” Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet stated.

Remember how people hated Vista, which resulted in poor Windows sales and fewer people upgraded from Windows XP to Vista? Then Windows 7 came out and it gave Microsoft its new lease on life? That’s how Thurrott is seeing Threshold.

“It’s an acknowledgment that what came before didn’t work, and didn’t resonate with customers. And though Microsoft will always be able to claim that Windows 9 wouldn’t have been possible without the important foundational work they had done first with Windows 8—just as was the case with Windows 7 and Windows Vista—there’s no way to sugarcoat this. Windows 8 has set back Microsoft, and Windows, by years, and possibly for good,” Thurrott wrote.