There is some interesting discussion happening today regarding netbook sales, namely that new devices may be negatively impacting sales and growth.

Paul Thurrott has done a nice job of separating hype from reality. He references IDC’s forecast that 45.6 million mininotebooks (aka netbooks) will be sold in 2011 and 60.3 million units in 2013.

We spend a lot of time checking out the new PCs in all form factors, and it is no wonder that people are buying lots of netbooks from our partners.  Check out the ASUS Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection netbook, the HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam Edition, and the Sony VAIO W, which my colleague Ben Rudolph recently posted about. Ben also highlighted HP’s recent announcement of new consumer PCs which include updates to their Mini line up of netbooks. Ben tells me he’ll be posting about several other netbooks in the coming weeks.

I have exciting news about a special event called Windows Summit 2010. For those who don’t know, Windows Summit 2010 is a special event designed for hardware and software designers, developers, engineers, testers and other technology professionals who want to learn how to build great products on Windows 7. Originally, the event was to take place here at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA. However, to make this more accessible to a larger audience we decided to make Windows Summit 2010 an online event. In making this an online event, we have made the content more digestible by giving you a month of great topics, tools and resources! Here is the current schedule:

• May 25th - Device Track: Discover the rich customization features in Windows 7 that enables partners to create a custom user experience for the PC or device. Targeted at software and device firmware engineers, this track will provide you with the direction and technical information to unlock the power of Windows 7 to create a great device experience.
• June 2nd - System track: Understand the features of Windows 7 that you can leverage to create and deliver the best system possible. You'll see how implementing a few fundamental techniques can dramatically improve overall system quality and key user experiences.
• June 16th - Software track: The Windows 7 platform makes it easy for developers to create engaging, user-friendly applications by providing familiar tools and rich development features that allow them to take advantage of the latest PC capabilities. The sessions in this track will guide you through the key developer advances in fundamentals, richer application experiences, and the best of Windows and the Web.

Check out the site to learn more including information about registration!

Softpedia published an interesting article yesterday regarding Windows 7 and how it’s doing – with some interesting conclusions. Check out the article here.

For more on the awesome momentum we’re seeing with Windows 7, see this blog post I published last week.

Any Saturday afternoon you are likely to find me at the local Best Buy or Fry’s. You see, I am a gadget nut and I love finding that next great product that helps me do something new or better. This is, of course, a good thing for the guy who heads up Ecosystem marketing for Windows. A big part of what makes Windows great is the universe of partners around it. My last few purchases (a Wacom Bamboo tablet, a Seagate FreeAgent Go 1TB portable drive, a Netgear WNDR3700 router, a Samsung netbook and a new Microsoft mouse) all have something in common – they all shine with Windows 7. This got me thinking a lot about the great support we are seeing from the ecosystem (something we have talked about before) and how these partners help enhance the Windows experience for all of our users.

When I think about the ecosystem around Windows, three things really stand out for me:

• The universe of products that support Windows 7 is immense, ranging from PCs and peripheral hardware to consumer, commercial and custom built software.
• More partners than ever before have achieved the Logo and customers are looking for the logo when they shop for the products.
• Partners are innovating on Windows 7. New generations of exciting products that leverage Windows 7 keep rolling in.

Last week, we announced sales had reached more than 100 million licenses, which means more people are choosing Windows 7. These people choose Windows in part because the apps and devices they care about simply work. I often get asked to characterize how many products work with Windows 7. The answer is simple – the number is huge. Let’s talk about the hardware first. Thanks to an analysis of a random sample of millions of PC’s that have opted in to participate in telemetry we know that over a quarter of a million devices work with Windows 7.

The universe of software is even larger – that same telemetry shows more than a million applications running on Windows 7 PCs around the world. This software comes from the largest tech industry titans serving tens of thousands of users right to the developer building customer software for their small business. The products people want are ready for Windows 7. Based on NPD and Download.com rankings, 14 of the top 15 applications are compatible with Windows 7 – products like WinZip, Turbo Tax, and Microsoft Office. Looking at other key rankings by NPD…

• 8 out of 10 of the top Accounting applications ranked by US Sales are compatible or have an upgrade to Windows 7 including QuickBooks and Peachtree Accounting
• 10 out of 10 of the top Games ranked by US Sales are compatible or have an upgrade to Windows 7 including Sims 3, World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty
• 10 out of 10 of the top Security applications ranked by US Sales are compatible or have an upgrade to Windows 7 including applications from Symantec and Kaspersky

Having millions of things work is one thing, but tens of thousands of products have gone the next step to earn the Compatible with Windows 7 logo. The logo is the sign to the customer that the vendor has tested their product to work well with Windows 7. There are now more products with the Windows 7 Logo than any past Windows logo program. There are nearly 18,000 products that have earned the logo, over 20,000 if you include PCs. That’s 5,000 applications and 13,000 devices and components. This means that all these products have passed our rigorous testing so in any category, you can find a product with the logo. It’s not the small guys either… 10 of the 15 most popular applications sold or downloaded in the US carry the logo. We’re talking all the top names: Intuit, Adobe, Symantec, Canon, Sage, McAfee, Cisco, D-Link, and HP.

With such a broad and vast ecosystem, we also continue to invest in compatibility tools and resources to help customers. We have seen over 15 million downloads of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. That’s larger than the population of Sweden and Singapore combined. IT professionals are also taking advantage of the Windows 7 Application Compatibility list with over 83,000 downloads. We’ve also continued to expand on the Windows 7 Compatibility Center to help people easily check the compatibility of thousands of devices and software programs for 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows 7. The site also provides links to drivers and software updates to help get your PC running with Windows 7. The site represents a self-reported sample of applications and devices so it changes every day. With an ecosystem as large as the one around Windows, it is nearly impossible to report on all products, but our goal is to provide the best information on the products people care about most. Since launch, we have seen over 17 million visitors to the Windows 7 Compatibility Center representing 78 million page views.

Finally and perhaps most importantly we continue to see innovation around Windows 7 by our ecosystem partners. If you want amazing products you can find them on Windows. In hardware, Onkyo announced the first Windows 7 compatible A/V receivers and now there are great products like the WD TV Live that enable Play To in legacy devices, the new Toshiba TV (the first TV to earn the logo), and Sierra Wireless announcing Device Stage support for all their Aircard line of products. Not only do all of these products carry the Compatible with Windows 7 logo, but they enhance your Windows experience in compelling ways. In software, more applications are taking advantage of unique features in Windows 7. The team at Graphic.ly is testing a next generation Windows 7 comic book reader, Seesmic created Look a twist on how people can access Twitter, Winzip 14.5 beta (update: just released today) has added the Windows Ribbon, even Google and Mozilla have added support for Jump Lists in their browsers.

Huge support, the most products with the Logo and new innovations – all reasons why I am excited about what our partners are doing. I like to call it “Ecosystem Awesomeness”.

Today we reported our third quarter earnings for the period ending March 31st, 2010 with a record $14.5 billion in revenue. You can read our earnings results here. Windows 7 continues to be a growth driver for Microsoft and people continue to be excited about Windows 7. How excited?  Exactly 6 months after the launch on October 22, 2009, we’ve sold well over 100 million licenses of Windows 7. To put that in context, more than 10% of all PCs worldwide are already running Windows 7 today. That’s amazing!

The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 was first introduced last May as a series of 6 applications that are designed to showcase Windows Touch in Windows 7 and to help people learn touch gestures. It consists of 3 casual games, and 3 Microsoft Surface applications that have been created for Windows 7.

Until today, the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 was only available for OEMs to put on new Windows 7 PCs capable of Windows Touch. Due to feedback and requests from both partners and customers, we are releasing the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 for anyone with Windows Touch capable devices to download.

Download: Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7

If you have a Windows 7 PC or a multitouch monitor that supports Windows Touch in Windows 7, the Touch Pack for Windows 7 is a good way for you to be able to truly test the multitouch investments we’ve made in Windows 7.

For more information on the Microsoft Touch Pack or Windows 7, see this blog post.

Wow! It’s only been about 30 hours since we announced the Windows Intune beta program and we’ve seen an incredible response from you and your colleagues. Due to your overwhelming interest and enthusiasm, we have already filled the beta program.

For those of you who are currently on the Windows Intune Beta, the product is in your hands. We are eager to receive your feedback in the Windows Intune forum. We hope you will be as confident and excited about Windows Intune as we are.

Don’t forget, you can visit our Windows Intune homepage and watch the Windows Intune Overview Video for more information.

I will keep you posted on any future updates.

We’ve talked a lot about the benefits to optimizing your Windows desktops and how Microsoft can help large companies reduce their TCO and have a more dynamic IT environment. But today I’d like to focus on smaller businesses, specifically the midsize businesses with 25 to 500 PCs in their environment and show them some love.

Many of these companies don’t have the resources or budget to setup and maintain an on-premise desktop management infrastructure and they want enterprise-class solutions. They’ve been coming to us asking for a solution that will meet their specific needs and budget. At the same time, we are seeing medium-sized businesses increasingly turn to cloud solutions. They are doing this because it gives them new IT capabilities with lower upfront investment and without the restrictions of traditional on-premise infrastructure.

Based on this customer feedback and trends, we’ve come up with an offering for this customer segment that will meet their needs.

Today I’m very excited to talk about how we’re advancing Microsoft’s cloud strategy with a new online offering for PC management and security combined with the best Windows experience called Windows Intune. Windows Intune simplifies how businesses manage and secure PCs using Windows cloud services and Windows 7—making it easier for IT staff to manage and secure PCs from virtually anywhere. In addition to the core cloud service in this offering, we’re also providing access to Windows 7 Enterprise upgrades as well as advanced on-premise management and virtualization tools (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack).

We are making the public beta of Windows Intune available to 1,000 customers and IT partners in the US, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico today.

Windows already takes advantages of cloud services to simplify PC management and we’re taking this even further with Windows Intune. A great, long-standing cloud services example is Windows Update. Before Windows Update came along, most customers had to manually download and install updates on each PC; now we’re automatically pushing out updates every month to hundreds of millions of PCs.

With Windows Intune, we want to enable businesses to do more of their PC management from the cloud so that they can manage their PCs wherever they are without requiring a huge investment in infrastructure.

Here’s a quick overview of what customers and IT consultants can do with the cloud service component of Windows Intune:

• Manage PCs through web-based console: Windows Intune provides a web-based console for IT to administrate their PCs. Administrators can manage PCs from anywhere.
• Manage updates: Administrators can centrally manage the deployment of Microsoft updates and service packs to all PCs.
• Protection from malware: Windows Intune helps protect PCs from the latest threats with malware protection built on the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine that you can manage through the Web-based console.
• Proactively monitor PCs: Receive alerts on updates and threats so that you can proactively identify and resolve problems with your PCs—before it impacts end users and your business.
• Provide remote assistance: Resolve PC issues, regardless of where you or your users are located, with remote assistance.
• Track hardware and software inventory: Track hardware and software assets used in your business to efficiently manage your assets, licenses, and compliance.
• Set security policies: Centrally manage update, firewall, and malware protection policies, even on remote machines outside the corporate network.

Take a look at this video from my colleague to get a brief glimpse of how the cloud service works.

Besides the Windows cloud service component, Windows Intune also includes Windows 7 Enterprise upgrade rights to standardize your PC’s on a single version of Windows to create a more manageable PC environment. Some of the key differentiating features that midmarket organizations have been eyeing in Windows 7 Enterprise are BitLocker and BitLocker To Go.

Windows Intune is a subscription service like the Business Productivity Online Suite and customers will be able to eventually purchase from http://www.microsoft.com/online as they purchase other online services from Microsoft.

And finally, you also get the advanced tools included in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for more critical troubleshooting and complex PC management tasks (i.e. drive recovery and virtualization). For example, Using the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset , one of the MDOP tools available to download for Windows Intune customers, administrators can recover PCs and data that have become unusable.

To sum it up Windows Intune can help you start managing and protecting your PCs in a new, simple way. With no costly server set up and maintenance and simple licensing and billing – single license per PC and a predictable, monthly payment cycle – you can avoid upfront capital expenditures and the complexity that comes with traditional IT solutions.

Windows Intune is just one more example of how Microsoft is taking advantage of the cloud to help customers solve their IT challenges in new ways and expect to see even more investments in this space.

Sign up for the beta today and let us know what you think! Please note that sign-ups will only be available until May 16th.

Interested in learning more? You can visit www.windowsintune.com. If you’re participating in the beta program and have questions, you can visit the Windows Intune IT Professional Forums on TechNet and for technical guidance visit the Windows Intune area on the Springboard Series on TechNet. While you’re there, make sure to check out the new Video Flipbook feature on the Windows Intune page. Press interested in more information can go to the Microsoft News Center.

Today Microsoft is announcing the availability of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.

S. Somasegar, Senior Vice President of the Developer Division here at Microsoft, has posted about the release of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 and the 5 major launch events happening around the world.

Visual Studio 2010 provides a great deal of enhancements for developers to make it easier to develop applications including a new editor which now uses the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and multiple monitor support. Visual Studio 2010 represents a major investment by Microsoft to provide developers with the best tools for developing applications targeting the latest Microsoft releases such as Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Phone 7, and Windows Azure.

For developers who are developing applications for Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010 has built-in support for Windows 7’s multitouch features (Windows Touch) and the “Ribbon” UI. That means developers can easily build applications specifically for Windows 7 that use multitouch and use the Ribbon. Visual Studio also makes it easy for developers to take advantage of Windows 7 features such as Jump Lists and Sensor and Location in their applications by providing quick access to libraries and code samples on MSDN.

To download, purchase or get more information on Visual Studio 2010, visit the Visual Studio website.

I want to remind developers to check out Develop for Windows. Develop for Windows is a new website we launched last month designed to highlight resources for Windows developers. Developers who visit the site can get sample code and special “kits” to jump-start developing a Windows application, and of course pointers to lots and lots of Windows developer content at the Windows Developer Center on MSDN. If you go to the site today and click “Build”, there is a special section dedicated to Visual Studio 2010! Oh and of course you can browse the Windows 7 for Developers Blog for some great content and Channel 9 too!

UPDATE 4/12: Scott Hanselman posted about today’s Visual Studio 2010 launch with a ton of information with links to resources and all. Definitely worth checking out.

Around this time of year, many people start thinking about purchasing a new PC. A new PC makes a great investment with that tax refund check you might have received and with the end of the school year coming; parents often look at sending their kids away to college with a new PC in the fall. After looking at PCs, you find the perfect one. The next step is to make sure the edition of Windows 7 on it is right for you. If you use your PC for everyday things and want the best entertainment experience, you’ll want Windows 7 Home Premium. If you work with your PC, you’ll want Windows 7 Professional, which has all the functionality of Windows 7 Home Premium, but is designed to make working from anywhere easier. If the PC you want doesn’t come pre-installed with the edition of Windows that meets your needs– that’s no problem because we’ve made it really easy to upgrade to the one that is using Windows Anytime Upgrade.

You might recall a blog post I published a few weeks ago about the HP Slimline PC I purchased from Best Buy. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium. But because I wanted to use this PC for work, I needed to be able to join it to a domain. I purchased a copy of Windows Anytime Upgrade to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional. By upgrading, I was able to join to a domain – among the other enhancements available with the Windows 7 Professional such as Windows XP Mode.

Another good example of how easy it is to upgrade your edition of Windows 7 is with netbooks. Many netbooks come with Windows 7 Starter. Customers can quickly upgrade from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium using Windows Anytime Upgrade and do things like personalize their PCs with all the new Windows 7 themes, create a desktop background slideshow of their own photos, switch between open programs more easily with Taskbar Previews, and enjoy Remote Media Streaming.

Many of our retailer partners are taking advantage of Windows Anytime Upgrade with a brand new offer that will start next week. Beginning April 4th at participating retailers, people who buy a new PC will have an opportunity to add Windows Anytime Upgrade to their purchase at a special low price. In the U.S.:

• Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium ERP $49.99 (versus everyday price of $79.99)
• Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional ERP $79.99 (versus everyday price of $89.99)

This offer will be available at participating retailers and for a limited time only, (in the U.S. this offer will end July 3rd). Details vary by retailer and geography – so check with your local retailers to see which PCs they are offering. Participating retailers also choose which Windows Anytime Upgrade path to offer. Some may offer Windows Anytime Upgrade for going from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium, while others may offer Windows Anytime Upgrade for going from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional, or they may offer both.

So just how easy is it to use Windows Anytime Upgrade to move from one edition of Windows 7 to another? It’s very easy! Check out this post on the step-by-step process of using Windows Anytime Upgrade to move from a lower edition of Windows 7 to a higher edition of Windows 7.

When you’re out looking for a PC, be on the lookout for this offer on new PCs to ensure you’re running the right edition of Windows 7 for you!

Yesterday, Forrester’s JP Gownder published a blog post highlighting some data from two new reports on Windows 7 adoption and satisfaction. The reports show that by the end of 2009, a strong majority of US consumers were aware of Windows 7. Windows 7 hit the market at the end of October so it’s pretty great to see that within just 2 months after launch a large portion of US consumers knew about Windows 7. Forrester also found that consumers who adopted Windows 7 in Q4 were generally very satisfied with their Windows 7 PCs.

And finally, another interesting finding was around upgrades. People move to a new OS one of two ways: either by buying a new PC or upgrading an existing PC. In the past, most people simply purchased a new PC to get a new version of Windows. With Windows 7, the data in the reports show that upgrading existing PCs was a much stronger trend with Windows 7. In the end, the reports show that early adopters who upgraded to Windows 7 were quite satisfied. Exciting to see the progress!

We’re announcing an update to Windows XP Mode today that will make it a more accessible to PCs in small and midsize businesses who want to migrate to Windows 7 Professional but have applications that still require Windows XP. Windows XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization technology to run. This change makes it extremely easy for businesses to use Windows XP Mode to address any application incompatibility roadblocks they might have in migrating to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode will of course continue to use hardware virtualization technology such as Intel VT (Intel Virtualization Technology) or AMD-V if available. You can find more information and download the update which will go live later today here.

Windows XP Mode is designed for small and midsize businesses. For enterprise customers, we recommend they use Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) which is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. MED-V provides deployment and manageability features better fit to address the needs of the enterprise customer. For more information on MED-V, click here. You can discover how MED-V works with deployment and management of virtual Windows desktops in key scenarios for the enterprise here on the Springboard Series on TechNet. And Stephen Rose recently blogged about our MED-V SP1 release here.

Today during our online Desktop Virtualization Hour event, we’ll be talking a little bit about Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

For Windows Server 2008 R2, SP1 will be introducing two new desktop virtualization features: Microsoft RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory. These features are designed to meet the increasing needs of our customers as they utilize virtualization in their environments with Windows Server 2008 R2. You can read more about RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory on the Windows Server Division WebLog.

For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update. SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows 7 is ready for commercial deployments now and many industry experts have recommended that customers do not wait for SP1. Many organizations are already in the process of deploying and are receiving benefits from their Windows 7 deployment. You can read some of those customer stories, as well as Forrester’s view of the benefits of Windows 7, with the following case studies:

• Forrester Total Economic Impact Study of Windows 7
• City of Miami TCO Study
• Baker Tilly TCO Study
• Getronics TCO Study

The Springboard Series on TechNet offers the best guidance for migrating from Windows XP as well as deploying and managing Windows 7. Some key resources to check out are:

• Choosing a Deployment Strategy
• Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Walkthrough Guide (Start to Finish)
• Deploying Windows 7 from A to Z Whitepaper
• Getting Started with Application Compatibility in a Windows Deployment

So don’t wait - go ahead and deploy… you know you want to! ;-)

We’re not yet announcing a beta or release timeline for SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 today. Once SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is released, the service pack will be delivered through Windows Update and be available on Microsoft Download Center for download as well. UPDATE 8/1: Click on the link for more information on Windows Service Packs.

I’ll be posting more on SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 once we get close to a release milestone. And remember, our Desktop Virtualization Hour online event starts at 9am PST today. Tune in if you want to hear more about desktop virtualization!

UPDATE 3/19: Fixed broken links for the above customer case studies.

Today during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, our Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein announced that Windows 7 has sold 90 million licenses to-date! That's a lot of Windows 7.  We're humbled and excited that people are responding so positively to Windows 7 - our customers have made it the fastest selling operating system in history.

Peter also had an opportunity to show off some of the great hardware innovation coming from our partners in the PC business. He brought three great PCs on stage to show off: the Sony VAIO X which is so sleek and portable it could fit inside a MacBook Air, the Dell Adamo XPS which is the thinnest PC in the world, and the HP Envy 13 which combines breakthrough industrial design with tons of power. I had a hand in helping to get these PCs to Peter for the conference and it was fun to hear him talk about them on stage.

All in all, some great momentum for Windows 7 and some great PCs!

It is great to see the excitement for Windows 7 translating into customer satisfaction with Microsoft overall. Earlier this week, Bloomberg posted an article headlined “Microsoft Outpaces Apple in Customer Satisfaction” that examined data gathered by YouGov Plc showing that Windows 7 has contributed more than twice as much to Microsoft’s customer satisfaction than Snow Leopard has to Apple’s. The data shows that customer satisfaction for Microsoft was at 64% the day before Windows 7 launched on Oct. 22nd, rose to 67% in the following week, and grew to 73% by the end of 2009 for a total increase of 14%. After Apple’s August 28th release of Snow Leopard, customer satisfaction rose 1% to 65% in the first week and grew 6.9% by the end of the year.

Business buyers will also likely take note, according to InformationWeek who said, “For CIOs, this news is likely to inspire additional confidence that Windows 7 can be regarded as a viable upgrade strategy.”