Microsoft has just made it official, there will be a total of 3 SKUs (or 5 SKUs if you count Enterprise and China specific editions) for Windows 8 and they are as follows: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT. Windows RT will be for Windows on Arm devices and will only be available on pre-installed devices.
There has been previous chatter suggesting that Microsoft could muddy the waters up with many different SKUs but the company has chosen to keep it simple with three primary SKUs. The post does note that there will be a SKU for China too: "For China and a small set of select emerging markets, we will offer a local language-only edition of Windows 8."
Notably absent from the list is a Windows 8 Enterprise edition. While we will not venture to guess if Microsoft will announce Enterprise level SKUs at a later date, just know that we could possibly see more editions for the corporate world.
But, as it stands now, we are graced with only 3 SKUs with only two available for purchase. The slimming of editions will make it easier for the consumer to pick the version that fits their needs best.
So what is it Neowin, which version will you be picking up when the OS goes on sale later this year?
[Update] Would you look at that, as soon as we mention the Enterprise SKU the blog post got updated to say that following:
| Feature name | Windows 8 | Windows 8 Pro | Windows RT |
| Upgrades from Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium | x | x | |
| Upgrades from Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate | x | ||
| Start screen, Semantic Zoom, Live Tiles | x | x | x |
| Windows Store | x | x | x |
| Apps (Mail, Calendar, People, Messaging, Photos, SkyDrive, Reader, Music, Video) | x | x | x |
| Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) | x | ||
| Internet Explorer 10 | x | x | x |
| Device encryption | x | ||
| Connected standby | x | x | x |
| Microsoft account | x | x | x |
| Desktop | x | x | x |
| Installation of x86/64 and desktop software | x | x | |
| Updated Windows Explorer | x | x | x |
| Windows Defender | x | x | x |
| SmartScreen | x | x | x |
| Windows Update | x | x | x |
| Enhanced Task Manager | x | x | x |
| Switch languages on the fly (Language Packs) | x | x | x |
| Better multiple monitor support | x | x | x |
| Storage Spaces | x | x | |
| Windows Media Player | x | x | |
| Exchange ActiveSync | x | x | x |
| File history | x | x | x |
| ISO / VHD mount | x | x | x |
| Mobile broadband features | x | x | x |
| Picture password | x | x | x |
| Play To | x | x | x |
| Remote Desktop (client) | x | x | x |
| Reset and refresh your PC | x | x | x |
| Snap | x | x | x |
| Touch and Thumb keyboard | x | x | x |
| Trusted boot | x | x | x |
| VPN client | x | x | x |
| BitLocker and BitLocker To Go | x | ||
| Boot from VHD | x | ||
| Client Hyper-V | x | ||
| Domain Join | x | ||
| Encrypting File System | x | ||
| Group Policy | x | ||
| Remote Desktop (host) | x | |