Windows President Steven Sinofsky Quits Microsoft
The manager responsible for bringing out the last two versions of Windows departs Microsoft.
In what is very surprising news coming out of the Remembrance/Veteran's Day weekend, Microsoft has revealed that Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky will be leaving the company effective immediately. Sinofsky was at the helm of Office products and lead the teams on the development of Windows 7 and 8 products.
Filling Sinofsky's shoes will be a pair of existing Microsoft employees. Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller will assume responsibility for the business of Windows while retaining her role as chief financial officer and chief marketing officer. Both executives will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
“It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company,” Sinofsky said.
“I am grateful for the many years of work that Steven has contributed to the company,” Ballmer said. “The products and services we have delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at Microsoft. We’ve built an incredible foundation with new releases of Microsoft Office, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface, Windows Server 2012 and ‘Halo 4,’ and great integration of services such as Bing, Skype and Xbox across all our products. To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings.”
About Julie Larson-Green
Since 1993, Larson-Green has worked on and led some of the most successful products for Microsoft, including the user experiences for early versions of Internet Explorer, and helped drive the thinking behind the refresh of the user experience for Microsoft Office. For Windows 7 and Windows 8 she was responsible for program management, user interface design and research, as well as development of all international releases. She has a master's degree in software engineering from Seattle University and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Western Washington University. In her new role she will be responsible for all future Windows product development in addition to future hardware opportunities.
About Tami Reller
Reller joined Windows in 2007 from the Microsoft Dynamics Division where she held a number of leadership positions. She began her career in technology at Great Plains Software in 1984 while still in college, and was the company’s chief financial officer at the time the company was acquired by Microsoft in 2001. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Minnesota State University Moorhead and an MBA from St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. In her expanded role she will assume the lead in driving business and marketing strategy for Windows devices, including Surface and partner devices, in addition to her current marketing and finance responsibilities.

who quits in the middle of the night with a prearranged press conference ?
nobody!
he was fired here is why:
"If you followed any of the news around the Windows 8 launch, you'll know that it didn't go so well. People who tested the software found to be confusing, and the company scrambled to do damage control in the days that followed. "
microsoft makes software for business, this whole 'touch' thing is microsoft trying to be apple like at selling a product to consumers, not businesses.
if microsoft was aiming windows 8 at businesses they would have made it with mostly voice recognition/command.
windows 8 is such a dismal flop worse than vista the people who designed it are getting fired!
$38-$89 product at launch when most other windows since windows 98 have luanched at $200-$300.
think on that it speaks VOLUMES about microsofts confidence in this product.
where is ME ? ME didn't even last 2 years i'm pretty sure it was discontinued within almost 1 year of it's launch, but i don't care to remember ME was THAT terrible.
ME was priced about the same as windows 8 is now.
windows 8 is in the same boat and will be just as short history.
If so good Windows 8 is for MS future... why leave?
Microsoft Employee: Ah, MR. Sinofsky. we need to make the Metro GUI optional on windows 8!
Sinofsky: No, Never! It will be Metro, The customers do not know what they want! until I tell... I tell them, and They want what I tell them to want!
Microsoft Employee: But the surveys say otherwise!
Sinofsky: Then the surveys are wrong! Can't you see this black turtleneck sweater I'am wearing! This means I am ALL KNOWING! Can you not see that I am the SECOND COMING!
Microsoft Employee: Okaaaaay!
who quits in the middle of the night with a prearranged press conference ?
nobody!
he was fired here is why:
"If you followed any of the news around the Windows 8 launch, you'll know that it didn't go so well. People who tested the software found to be confusing, and the company scrambled to do damage control in the days that followed. "
microsoft makes software for business, this whole 'touch' thing is microsoft trying to be apple like at selling a product to consumers, not businesses.
if microsoft was aiming windows 8 at businesses they would have made it with mostly voice recognition/command.
windows 8 is such a dismal flop worse than vista the people who designed it are getting fired!
$38-$89 product at launch when most other windows since windows 98 have luanched at $200-$300.
think on that it speaks VOLUMES about microsofts confidence in this product.
where is ME ? ME didn't even last 2 years i'm pretty sure it was discontinued within almost 1 year of it's launch, but i don't care to remember ME was THAT terrible.
ME was priced about the same as windows 8 is now.
windows 8 is in the same boat and will be just as short history.
Also, @f-14 the OS is so cheap because they want everyone to adopt it so the Microsoft store gets a foot hold. That's where the real money is.
I don't own or want a smartphone or a tablet, nor do I want my PC to behave like one over my objection; I'll buy W8 when the type of UI becomes my choice.
the microsoft store can be launched like iTunes and or with a patch to all windows update platforms.
seriously WHO QUITS AT NIGHT during monday night football WITH a prearranged press conference?!
why would you need a press conference to quit? WHY?
think on that.
Billions upon billions of ipad sales... yeah, consumers hate touch and easy to use UIs.
Lets all hope that Microsoft realizes their huge mistake and will fix all of Windows 8 problems and release a much better and improved Windows 9 ASAP.
Windows 8 big failure is a very good lesson for stubborn Microsoft. They should work on a much improved Windows 9 without all the irritating usability issues and release it when this new OS is really ready for the world to adopt. I really hate being their guinea pig.
Are you saying it makes more sense to hold a press conference over firing someone?...
They would hold a press conference either way, he was the President of Windows. Wouldn't it indicate that he was fired if the announcement wasn't coupled with a press conference?