The spotlight is on Microsoft this time as it launches Windows 8, leaving the tech world wondering if smartphones and tablet computers running on the new operating system would measure up with Apple and Android devices.

Figures pointing to market acceptance of the new Windows version of Microsoft, which analysts said represents the tech giant's make-or-break effort of competing in the mobile computing world, will not be trickling out in the next few days after the product's commercial debut so it will take some time to figure out if Microsoft got it right this time, even belatedly.

Reuters said the whole fourth quarter of 2012 will have to pass before everyone would get a sense on how Microsoft actually fared on Windows 8, performance of which will be chiefly gauged on the number of Surface tablets that will fly off the shelves and reports coming from OEM partners of the software giant.

Research firms like Gartner and IDC will not be issuing data until January 2012 while Intel, which powers much of the machine running the Microsoft platform, has indicated that a 90-day wait is required to determine if Windows 8 is a success or a monumental flop.

If reviews, which equally praised the Surface for its superb engineering and scored it for not packing sufficient battery life and a stable of attractive apps, were of any indication, Microsoft has yet to inspire the same excitement that attended Apple's product roll outs.

Retailers and PC vendors were likewise in cautious but optimistic mode, hoping that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was right in declaring in an interview with The Seattle Times that Windows 8 will "re-imagine the world from the ground up."

Even if a speck of that claim would be realised, it would at least reverse the dipping sales that have characterised the PC market ever since global consumers discovered the more engaging computing experience via mobile devices.

Windows 8 and the way the market would react to its usability and attraction will redefine the present and future PC environment, which for Mr Ballmer will be largely dominated by cool gadgets and services that tech firms like Microsoft would be able to deliver.

And that is the path that Microsoft is gunning to break and should it stumble, it may not be the end for the company, which remains flush with cash and enjoys pipeline of assured revenues, but the case would not be necessarily applicable to Mr Ballmer.

It is likely, analysts said, that Microsoft would end Mr Ballmer's 12-year reign as CEO if Windows 8 fails to meet gigantic expectations by the market, capping a tenure that saw his firm losing the lead from Apple and Google and in the process shedding half of its market value.