Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system is expected to move to its beta stage later in February and the company is likely to release the new product this fall.

The company had announced details of the yet to be released Windows 8 in a blog post claiming it will come with built-in support for mobile broadband devices and will allow users to better manage their Wi-Fi and mobile broadband networks. The new operating system will allow users to easily connect to mobile broadband networks and also manage connections and monitor their data usages for controlling Internet costs.

The company understands that providing only Wi-Fi support would not be enough so the team decided to add support for integrated mobile broadband. The newer version will come with a common mobile-broadband class driver that is compatible with devices from a variety of mobile operators and vendors. This will eliminate the need for the users to find separate drivers.

Windows 8 will have a Metro interface, which is designed for touchscreen computers and tablets and includes use HTML5 and CSS3. Analysts are evaluating the developer preview release and it is to be seen if the platform is able to attract users in the smartphone and tablet market dominated by Google's Android and Apple.