What you need to know
- Joanna Stern sat down with Satya Nadella to talk about Windows 11.
- During the interview, Nadella talked about bringing iMessage to Windows.
Earlier today, Microsoft unveiled Windows 11 to the world. After the virtual keynote, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sat down with The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern to talk about the new version of Windows and what it means for consumers.
Windows 11, due out later this year, is full of new features, including a new Start menu that's been moved to the center and a Microsoft Store with Android apps. In an exclusive interview, WSJ's Joanna Stern spoke with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the software, the influence of the pandemic and his strategy of competing with Google and Apple.
During the interview, Stern asked how Microsoft's platform rules differ from that of Apple's. Nadella was quick to point out that third-party apps receive first-class status on Windows, unlike those on Apple's own operating systems.
How are your platform rules different than say Apple?One simple thing, we have the ability to have multiple marketplaces that can thrive. We wanna have a great marketplace but we also welcome other marketplaces. We wanna have great tools like say Teams, but we also welcome Zoom or Slack or anything else to be also first class.
Nadella also talked about Window's support for the iPhone, saying that the company would welcome Apple to bring services such as iMessage to their desktop system.
So if you have an Android phone, it works great with Windows. What about the iPhone?We would love to make sure that it works better. I mean, we do everything we can. Like anything that Apple wants to do with Windows, whether it's iTunes or iMessage or what have you, we would welcome that. But overall, we wanna make sure our software runs great on Apple devices and Windows works well with any software from anyone, whether it's Google or Apple or Adobe or anyone.
Nadella's vision is clear: Windows is being made to be the operating system that welcomes all platforms, a big bet against the "walled garden" approach that Apple takes for its own software.
