Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

Top Exec Says Windows 8 Off to “Solid Start” Despite Challenges

While some people have been quick to write off Windows 8, the head of the Windows business insists that the three-month-old operating system is off to a solid start.

“We are really only just getting started,” said Tami Reller, who now runs the business side of Windows, following the departure last year of Windows division President Steven Sinofsky. “It’s a solid start.”

Microsoft has said it sold 60 million licenses as of last month, and Reller notes that many of the most anticipated tablet and convertible models are only now coming to market. In particular, Reller says that there were fewer touchscreen models than the company had hoped to see at launch.

“It’s built for a generation of new devices,” Reller said in an interview. “They didn’t all come for holiday.”

Several of Microsoft’s PC-making partners have said that Windows 8 got a slower-than-hoped-for start, despite Microsoft’s huge marketing push.

For her part, Reller says Windows 8 was designed to be an operating system that could run on tablets and computers for years to come.

While she declined to forecast whether the overall Windows business would grow this year, Reller said that Windows 8 is designed to allow the company to compete in both tablets and computers, an overall market that is growing, as opposed to just the PC market.

“Clearly, we think that presents opportunities for growth,” Reller said.

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik