Julie Larson-Green Replaces Steven Sinofsky as Top Windows Boss

Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 01:39 Written by admin Tuesday, 13 November 2012 01:39

Julie Larson-Green has replaced Steven Sinofsky as the Windows and Windows Live President, according to Microsoft. The move is unexpected to say the least, and Julie certainly has a bumpy ride to look forward to. She’s taking the Windows helm in a time when the division is underperforming and selling less and less of the company’s flagship product.

It’s unclear whether Sinofsky’s departure has anything to do with the drop in Windows sales, or the modest selling performance of Surface tablets. However, people close to the Redmond company are revealing that at fault might be key vision disparities between Sinofsky and other top Microsoft executives, including CEO Steve Ballmer. Nothing is confirmed, of course, and such details will most likely remain unconfirmed for a long time to come, unless Sinofsky writes his memoirs, or there’s a Windows 8 Easter egg that tell the true story.

Larson-Green managed to drive a lot of innovation that impacted products such as Office and Windows 7. She’s credited for pushing natural user interfaces such as Ribbon/Fluent for Office, and she oversaw the UX evolution of Windows 8 and its predecessor, Windows 7.

Larson-Green’s immediate focus is to whip Windows Blue, the successor of Windows 8, into shape, and continue with Windows 9, two operating system releases reportedly due in 2013 and in 2014, respectively.