Ballmer, Partners Celebrate 400 Million PCs Running Windows 7

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imageMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer today thanked partners at Microsoft Corp.’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It was also announced the the next reveal for Windows 8 would come at Microsoft's Build Conference September 13 - 16.

Later This Week

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 Virgin Group, will conclude the conference on Wednesday as the guest headliner.

You can watch the keynotes for WPC at 9 am Pacific (noon Eastern).