1 hr.
Rosa Golijan , NBC News
Microsoft held an event in New York City on a gorgeous Thursday morning to officially launch Windows 8, the latest version of its highly popular operating system.
Steven Sinofsky, President of Windows and Windows Live, kicked off the event by explaining that Microsoft is celebrating the global availability of Windows 8 on Thursday.
Sinofsky revealed that WIndows 7, the prior version of Microsoft's desktop operating system, has sold over 670 million licenses. Yes, over 670,000,000 copies of Windows 7 are out there in the world, on people's computers. Windows 8, the latest and greatest, uses Windows 7 as its foundation, so naturally there are high expectations. (And considering that the operating system has under gone over 1,240,000,000 hours of testing, according to Sinofsky, we certainly hope it lives up to our every hope and dream.)
After providing that statistic, Sinofsky launched into some history lessons. He took us back to the days when we were basically "living in caves," the time of Windows 95. He used memories of this era to emphasize just how far Microsoft's operating system has come. Now, over 1,000 PCs have been certified for Windows 8, bringing on what the folks at Microsoft describe as a new era of computing (and of Windows).
Sinofsky did at one point acknowledge that some folks might call out Microsoft's newly launched app store for having a small selection of apps, in comparison to what is available on other platforms at the moment. "We see today as a grand opening, and a very strong one," he clarifies. And he says that there are more apps in this store than there were in any competitor's at launch.
Microsoft executives Mike Angiulo and Julie Larson-Green offered a demonstration of Windows 8 on older (and updated) devices, as well as on brand-spanking new gadgets. They emphasized how the new operating system runs significantly faster than its predecessor on older devices — cheers were heard from a group in the audience when this detail was pointed out — but focused on all the new Windows 8 devices hitting the market right now.
After Angiulo and Larson-Green wrapped up their demonstration, the booming voice of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer flooded the event space. "It's an exciting day," he declared.
Updating...
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
Microsoft held an event in New York City on a gorgeous Thursday morning to officially launch Windows 8, the latest version of its highly popular operating system.
Steven Sinofsky, President of Windows and Windows Live, kicked off the event by explaining that Microsoft is celebrating the global availability of Windows 8 on Thursday.
Sinofsky revealed that WIndows 7, the prior version of Microsoft's desktop operating system, has sold over 670 million licenses. Yes, over 670,000,000 copies of Windows 7 are out there in the world, on people's computers. Windows 8, the latest and greatest, uses Windows 7 as its foundation, so naturally there are high expectations. (And considering that the operating system has under gone over 1,240,000,000 hours of testing, according to Sinofsky, we certainly hope it lives up to our every hope and dream.)
After providing that statistic, Sinofsky launched into some history lessons. He took us back to the days when we were basically "living in caves," the time of Windows 95. He used memories of this era to emphasize just how far Microsoft's operating system has come. Now, over 1,000 PCs have been certified for Windows 8, bringing on what the folks at Microsoft describe as a new era of computing (and of Windows).
Sinofsky did at one point acknowledge that some folks might call out Microsoft's newly launched app store for having a small selection of apps, in comparison to what is available on other platforms at the moment. "We see today as a grand opening, and a very strong one," he clarifies. And he says that there are more apps in this store than there were in any competitor's at launch.
Microsoft executives Mike Angiulo and Julie Larson-Green offered a demonstration of Windows 8 on older (and updated) devices, as well as on brand-spanking new gadgets. They emphasized how the new operating system runs significantly faster than its predecessor on older devices — cheers were heard from a group in the audience when this detail was pointed out — but focused on all the new Windows 8 devices hitting the market right now.
After Angiulo and Larson-Green wrapped up their demonstration, the booming voice of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer flooded the event space. "It's an exciting day," he declared.
Updating...
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.