William Henry Gates III may be totally focused on his charity work across the globe, but that does not mean the non-executive chairman of Microsoft is out of the loop with how things are going at the company.
In fact, Gates recently appeared on two different interviews and shared his thoughts on the company’s newest operating system (Windows 8), the first ever tablet (Surface RT) as well as the future of the Redmond technology firm.
Talking to Fox Business Network, Gates said that Windows 8 was just the very beginning of an exciting new era of computing thanks to its great touch support and apps:
“The way they have built touch in, the way they have the application store, it’s off to quite a good start. You know, making sure they have more, the best applications, more applications, you know, they’re on a really good trajectory.”
Say what you may about the user experience in Windows 8, it is hard to deny the polish and amount of work Microsoft has afforded the new OS. In a second interview with CNBC he was asked about sales figures the newest version of Windows is performing. Pretty well, according to the software brains:
“I’m engaged as chairman on a part-time basis. But my full-time work for the rest of my life will be the foundation work. Microsoft’s got a lot of exciting things going on. It’s a competitive field. Windows 8 has done well. Surface computer is doing well. So, you know, I share lots of ideas about where office should go and, you know, I think the field as a whole should be proud of how quickly it’s moving and Microsoft will lead in a lot of those areas.”
All through this, Microsoft has been pretty tight-lipped on details and sales figures, for Windows 8 and Surface RT respectively. All we know right now is that Redmond has moved 60 million licenses for the new OS, a major portion of which, analysts expect, is to hardware vendors.
But through it all, there is a feeling that this was a necessary step for Redmond, and its bid to streamline computing both on desktops and mobile devices, as well as stay relevant in both arenas.
At the end of the day Windows 8 is Microsoft’s foundation for the future. And Gates is aware of this.
