I have a couple of things to tell you about today. First off, we are excited to announce that Windows 7 has sold 150 million licenses to-date. As I’ve said before, Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history with 7 copies of Windows 7 sold every second. Earlier this month, I published a post about Tami Reller’s keynote at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Technology Conference. One of the points that stood out for me was her comment that between companies actively deploying and evaluating it, approximately 75% of enterprises are looking at Windows 7 for their organization. That’s amazing! And of course people continue to be excited about the features and benefits of Windows 7, and the PCs that our partners are delivering for Windows 7. You can read about many of the awesome Windows 7 PCs from my colleague Ben Rudolph (Ben the PC Guy) over on the Windows Experience Blog.
One of the things that people love about Windows 7 is how seamlessly it works with Windows Live, our free apps for sharing, photos, movies and communication. Starting tomorrow June 24th, we are releasing the beta versions of the new Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Sync. You can read more about this from the Windows Live Team on Inside Windows Live. Together, the new Windows Live Essentials combine the power of the PC and the reach of the cloud to enhance the Windows 7 experience. The way people connect and share with each other continues to shift toward the cloud and we recognize that. The PC continues to be the hub for important activities such as managing email, organizing photos, watching movies and listening to music. What the new Windows Live Essentials does is blends together the best of the PC with the best of the cloud. I’ll be posting my thoughts about Windows Live Essentials tomorrow.