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Expect free Microsoft updates 'later this year'

By KATE STANTON, UPI.com
A laptop at a retail store displays the new Microsoft Windows 8 operating system on the day of its official release in New York City on October 26, 2012. UPI/John Angelillo
A laptop at a retail store displays the new Microsoft Windows 8 operating system on the day of its official release in New York City on October 26, 2012. UPI/John Angelillo | License Photo

Microsoft, which offered a preview of Windows 8.1 on Wednesday, said the free update for Windows 8 users will be available later this year, as the company moves to begin free, weekly refreshes of its software.

According to Bloomberg, the move represents a radical shift for a tech giant that has only updated its Office corporate software once every three years.

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“Microsoft, on this every-three-year schedule for the massive wave of new products, looks like a dinosaur,” analyst Melissa Webster told Bloomberg. “Three years is a lifetime in tech these days.”

‘Microsoft understands the competitive threat,’’ she said of the company's to shift resources to online upgrades. “They are feeling the heat.”

“The future of Windows is very, very bright,” Microsoft head Steve Ballmer said of the update, which will be available "later this year."

Here's the company's preview of Windows 8.1:

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