14 DAY TRIAL // For the second time in the space of a couple of weeks, Windows 8’s strategic importance was stressed by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. At the Rotary Club of Seattle on June 29th, 2011, Ballmer made it clear that Windows 8 is considered a very important project.
This was underlined the past week during his speech at the Imagine Cup 2011, although the software giant’s CEO offered no additional details on top of what the company already made public.
Furthermore, he pointed users to the upcoming Build conference in September 2011, an event which, according to Microsoft, will bring with it the first deep insight into Windows 8.
“There's a lot coming in our own case I think the news, the things that we have to talk to you as a group of technologists over the next few months, Windows 8 will be pretty important. You'll hear more about that at our developer conference Build in September,” Ballmer said.
There’s speculation that Microsoft will also release Windows 8 bits at BUILD, with some sources claiming that the fully-fledged Beta development milestone of the operating system will be provided to developers this September.
The Redmond company has yet to confirm or deny rumors of Windows 8 Beta’s availability at BUILD.
“As we take a look over the next several years, we're certainly excited about what we're doing, just like you all came together into project teams and did exciting work and you got excited about it, that's kind of what we get to do every day at Microsoft,” Ballmer also said.
“Hey, what's Windows 8? How do we drive it? What do we make happen? What are the key phenomena? When do we get to release it? How do we make it better, and better and better? Yes, there are some other guys we compete with. Boom we've got to do better, and better, and better, and better, and better. It's pretty exciting, pretty exciting stuff.”