In an interview, Keith Lorizio, Microsoft’s vice president for U.S. sales and marketing, laid out some of the company’s goals for Windows 8. He said Microsoft hopes to have 400 million devices running the new OS by June, and they believe application developers will list 100,000 apps in the Windows Store by February. Currently the Windows Store has only about 3,000 apps.
“It’s critical for us to get a critical mass of apps in order for the users to integrate in the … highest consumer-oriented experience,” acknowledged Lorizio. “[W]e’re putting millions of dollars against that effort and working with publishers in order to their apps live as quickly as possible.” Microsoft is currently running seminars to helps developers learn to write Windows 8 apps.