During the Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told 14,000 audience members consisting of Microsoft partners to prep their customers for a the “new world” of Windows 7, Office 2010, and IE9. Turner also told audience members that Windows XP, Office 2003, and IE6 are dead.
“Windows XP, Office 2003, and IE6 deserve a standing ovation. God bless them. They’ve worked for the last twelve, thirteen years. We love those products. We absolutely love those products. They’ve been so good to so many people, including the people in this room,” Turner stated.
“But you know what? They’re dead. They’re dead. End of life is 2014. We have to get behind this refresh.”
According to Turner, many customers are defining Microsoft by old versions of Windows and Office. “That’s what they think of Microsoft and our partner ecosystem. Too many of them do. The reality is that’s not what we are at all. You can’t even begin to get someone’s mind around Lync and the power of SharePoint and collaboration and the cloud until we get these old applications remediated and moved forward.”
Turner also stated that Microsoft has 42,000 partners currently training on the cloud. “We need 642,000,” Turner said.
