Steve Ballmer Thanks Partners for Betting on Microsoft
By Microsoft Corp., PRNESunday, July 10, 2011
LOS ANGELES, July 11, 2011 -
- Microsoft’s CEO credits partners
for making Windows 7 the fastest-selling operating system in
history, outlines progress across the business.
Kicking off Microsoft Corp.’s annual Worldwide Partner
Conference (WPC), a four-day event that celebrates the
accomplishments of the company’s 640,000 global partners, CEO Steve
Ballmer today thanked partners for helping make Windows 7 the
fastest-selling operating system in history and indicated that with
future versions in development, partners can be confident in their
bets on Windows for phones, PCs, servers and the cloud.
(Logo:
Speaking before nearly 15,000 partners from around the globe,
Ballmer said more than 400 million Windows 7 licenses have been
sold in less than two years, and that the best way to prepare
customers and prospects for the future is to move all customers to
Windows 7.
Echoing that point, Tami Reller, corporate vice president and
chief financial officer of Windows and Windows Live, emphasized
that Windows 7 is the path to Windows 8. Noting that there are
still more than 200 million PCs running Windows XP, which was
launched in 2001, Reller told partners they have a real opportunity
to deliver more value to customers in the short term and “set them
up for the future.”
In providing an overview of the road ahead with Windows, Reller
told partners that despite the record growth and success of Windows
7, there is tremendous Windows 7 deployment opportunity now and
well into the future. “We see a future with a heterogeneous
enterprise environment of Windows 8 devices and apps alongside
Windows 7 PCs and apps,” she said.
“At the heart of our ability to deliver Windows 8 is the
flexibility Windows has consistently shown; its ability to adapt
over time is what ensures Windows will continue to be highly
relevant in the future,” Reller added.
Other news from Ballmer’s and Reller’s presentations included
the following:
– In a wide-ranging keynote speech that highlighted major
moments from the past year and looked ahead at what’s next, Ballmer
also focused on key accomplishments for Windows Phone, including
the company’s partnership with Nokia; Xbox, including Kinect and
the company’s strategy to bring controller-free games and
entertainment to the living room and live TV to Xbox this fall;
progress with Bing, including a demo of Bing on Xbox (”You say it,
Xbox finds it”) and social features in Bing resulting from
Microsoft’s partnership with Facebook; an update on the company’s
impending acquisition of Skype; and cloud services momentum.
– Reller announced the beta of the next release of Windows
Intune for cloud-based PC management and security. Windows Intune
provides the best Windows experience for customers by giving them
access to the latest, premium version of Windows plus PC management
and security in the cloud. The new Windows Intune features,
including software distribution and remote tasks, strengthen the
opportunity for partners. The limited, public beta is available at
– American Airlines
will soon update its application for Windows Phone, which will
provide “the fastest delivery of flight information data on the
planet,” according to an American Airlines spokesperson. The update
will allow real-time flight status information, including gate
changes and baggage claim areas, from American’s reservation system
to be pushed to a cloud-based Windows Azure system, which can then
push the flight status notifications directly to the application’s
Windows Phone Live Tiles. American Airlines customers who download
the application and pin it to Start will have instant access to
their most current travel information on the top-level user
interface of their phone, eliminating the need for text message,
email or phone-call updates. The application was developed in
conjunction with Microsoft partner
Texas.
– Boeing is using compelling ways to market its best-selling
737 with Windows Azure, the Windows operating system, and Windows
Touch. The “Boeing
737 Explained” tool, developed by Boeing and
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is hosted on the Windows Azure
platform.
– The
Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the
United States, will use
CRM for its 70,000 employees, and
private-industry successor to the U.S. Space Shuttle program, will
use
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for its financial and project
accounting.
– Less than two weeks after the official launch of
Office 365, more than 50,000 organizations are trialing the
service - a rate of one company every 25 seconds. Ballmer said that
more than one in five of the Fortune 500 uses Microsoft Online
Services and large organizations worldwide are moving to the
cloud-based service, including the
move 66,000 people to Office 365 by the end of this year, and
Technology Corp. in Japan, which moved to Office 365 to help reduce
its overall technology maintenance costs while driving increased
productivity across its 19 subsidiary companies.
Partners to Hear From Other
Executives
Throughout the week, senior executives will offer an inside look
at the road ahead for Microsoft and its partners:
– Tomorrow, Satya Nadella, president of the Server and
Tools Business; Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft
Office Division; and Kirill Tatarinov, president of
Microsoft Business Solutions, will highlight new cloud-centric
program and product opportunities for Microsoft partners and
customers.
– Andrew Lees, president of the Windows Phone
Division, and Steve Guggenheimer, corporate vice president
of the Original Equipment Manufacturer Division, also will speak on
Tuesday about how Microsoft and its hardware partners are able to
provide the most unique experiences and offer the best value to
consumers and developers.
– Kevin Turner, chief operating officer, will
speak on Wednesday, addressing the competitive advantages to
partnering with Microsoft and the partner opportunity in emerging
markets.
– Sir Richard Branson, renowned entrepreneur,
author, and founder and president of
the conference on Wednesday as the guest headliner.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide
leader in software, services and solutions that help people and
businesses realize their full potential.
Erika Bitzer of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, +1-206-576-5531, ebitzer at webershandwick.com, or Weber Shandwick Worldwide, WPC11PR at webershandwick.com, both for Microsoft; NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx .
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