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Microsoft demonstrates innovations across Windows device ecosystem

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Sanghamitra Kar
New Update

TAIPEI, CHINA: Nick Parker, Microsoft corporate vice president demonstrated the innovations happening across Windows and the Windows device ecosystem. 

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Tony Prophet, corporate vice president of Windows marketing, and Dr. Hsiao-Wuen Hon, managing director of Microsoft Research Asia and distinguished scientist at Microsoft, provided evidence of how Microsoft is innovating to deliver opportunity for partners and value to customers in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.

Nick Parker unveiled nearly 40 new Windows and Windows Phone devices at Computex 2014.

Parker commented about Microsoft's vision for devices in a rapidly changing market and how Microsoft is innovating across its products, partnerships and business model to create opportunity for partners. Parker also talked about Microsoft's device partner strategy to drive scale with Windows, through new partnerships and new technology.

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Prophet talked about how recent Windows enhancements including $0 Windows for devices smaller than 9 inches, relaxed certification requirements, the release of Windows 8.1 Update, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows universal apps all make building incredible Windows devices easier for a broader ecosystems of hardware partners and ultimately more valuable and affordable for customers. He talked about the value of Microsoft cloud services across devices and shared the latest momentum:

  • 2 billion Skype minutes per day
  • 4.4 million Office 365 Home subscribers
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  • 400 million active Outlook.com users
  • 250 million OneDrive users
  • 48 million Xbox Live members
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  • 18 percent share of U.S. search market for Bing

He also shared momentum on apps and announced that Kabam, in free-to-play games, will deliver its lineup of hit games to Windows tablets and phones over the next year, including "Fast & Furious 6: The Game," "Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon" and "The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth." Moving forward, Kabam games will be available for Windows in the same timeframe as for other platforms.

Nick Hedderman, group manager in the Windows product management team demonstrated the latest capabilities in Windows 8.1 Update and Windows Phone 8.1, showing a number of new experiences that were built based on customer and partner feedback, including improved mouse and keyboard navigation in Windows and enhanced notification, personalization and file management options in Windows Phone.

He finished the demo with a look at Cortana, Microsoft's new personal assistant on Windows Phone, and spoke about its upcoming availability in both China and U.K.

Microsoft and its hardware partners announced new designs, price points and markets for Windows devices.