14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller announced at the 11th Annual J.P. Morgan Tech Forum at CES 2013 that Microsoft had sold a total of 60 million Windows 8 copies so far, thus trying to emphasize that the new OS was actually selling pretty well.
But Reller has also talked about Windows Blue, the first major update for Windows 8 that’s expected to be released in mid-2013.
The Microsoft executive refused to talk about the upcoming Windows release, but she did mention that after Sinofsky’s departure, developers quickly resumed their future projects.
“[After] a day of distraction, people went back to the project that they're working on, which we won't talk about that today,” she said.
Windows 8 was the main topic of the meeting, so Windows Blue was most likely the project Reller refused to talk about.
“The team is focused on really avoiding distractions and just getting set up to drive things forward. It's a team that is used to delivering very, very big, complex projects together and in working across Microsoft to bring teams together … They have proven success in delivering projects together… we are moving forward and did move forward fast after the change,” she continued.
According to existing rumors, Windows Blue is likely to be released this year, and even though some sources have hinted that it may be a Windows 8 update, others said that Microsoft planned to release it as a standalone product.
If this happens, Windows Blue could become the first operating system in Microsoft’s history offered for free or at a very low price, as part of the company’s attempts to move users to newer software.
Windows Blue will continue to use the Start Screen and the Modern UI, as Microsoft has no intention to bring back the Start button on the Windows platform.