Come Thursday, you will be able to run Windows 7 on iPad. OnLive is going to release a new set of apps on January 12 that will stream Windows 7 operating system to your, and our, favourite tablet.
This isn't some sort of a cheap knock off. It really does work. Onlive Desktop apps will stream the whole Microsoft Windows 7 experience to your iPad. How do the apps run Windows 7 on iPad? Well given the fact OnLive's gaming service is up and running pretty smoothly, the same bandwidth pipelines on which OnLive's gaming service depends upon will be used for streaming Windows 7 on your iPad.
Using the OnLive apps you will be able to access and use Microsoft Office Suite on iPad. The Suite which includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint will be accessible using the tablet in all their functional glory. The reason why we are using the phrase "OnLive Desktop apps" is because there are, well, two different kinds of OnLive Desktop apps.
The one that is coming out on Thursday is OnLive's free version. Free doesn't mean that it will not run Windows 7 on iPad and will just be a demo. This free version will provide full functionality of these Suite programs coupled with 2GB of cloud space. Apart from this, the OnLive Desktop Pro app will soon be released. It is going to be a premium service which comes attached with a $9.99 charge per month. The premium package brings more Windows 7 applications, 50 GB of cloud space as well as something the company is referring to as cloud-accelerated browsing.
Moreover, OnLive Enterprise will let companies choose how they want to run Windows 7 on iPad. Companies will be allowed to customize the experience and add device access, applications and data services as per their needs.
We can't wait for these apps to release on January 12, as we really want to try and see what it feels like to run Windows 7 on iPad using OnLive Desktop apps. We'll let you know as soon as the app hits the App Store.