Joe Belfiore

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Joe Belfiore
Joe Belfiore.jpg
Joe Belfiore shares news at MIX10.
Bornc. 1968
Tampa Bay, Florida, United States
Alma mater Stanford University
Occupation(s) Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Windows and Devices Group
Years active1990–present
SpouseKristina Belfiore
Children3

Joe Belfiore is an American business executive who has held various roles at Microsoft since August 1990, mostly in the field of user experience. A frequent speaker, Belfiore has appeared at many Microsoft conferences, often giving demos on stage and/or acting as a spokesperson for the company. [1] In 2018, he was named the #1 Microsoft Influencer for fans to follow on Twitter. In 2004, he gave a TED Talk in-person at the TED Conference in Monterey,CA. [2] In summer 2023 he retired from Microsoft and is now active as chair of a non-profit board. [3] [4]

Contents

Early life

Born in Tampa Bay, Florida, [5] Belfiore became enamoured of computers as a child through his experience with a Timex Sinclair 1000 belonging to the father of a fellow kid in his neighborhood. [1] He attended Clearwater Central Catholic High School and graduated in 1986. He then attended Stanford University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1990. [6]

Career at Microsoft

Windows 95, Windows XP and Internet Explorer

Soon after graduation he was hired by Microsoft, and in his first job he worked as Program Manager for OS/2, but this post was short-lived as Microsoft ended its partnership with IBM regarding OS/2. He moved over to the Windows NT team and was responsible for program management of the Windows NT user experience. [7]

In 1993 he moved to the Windows team and became lead program manager for the user interface of "Chicago", a project which would become Windows 95. In that job role, he was one of the key people to introduce the start menu, taskbar, and Explorer to Windows. [8] Following this, he worked on user interface for Internet Explorer 3 and Internet Explorer 4, including IE4's Windows integrated shell. Belfiore then became manager for user experience in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, [7] including the engineering and design team that created the Windows XP user interface. [9]

Windows Media Center & Zune

In 2002 Belfiore joined Microsoft's new eHome division as General Manager for eHome user interface, first shipped as Windows XP Media Center Edition. [1] Later becoming vice president of the division, [10] he was also responsible for design, business and marketing of Windows Media Center and related products, including "Media Center Extenders"—hardware devices that displayed the Media Center experience on TV sets around the home, and the Xbox 360 Media Center Extender. [11] As part of this effort, Belfiore successfully negotiated a deal with US cable companies to enable PCs to consume and broadcast digital TV signals around the home. [12]

In 2008 he became corporate vice president of the Zune division, responsible for the Zune PC client and services. [13] [14]

Windows Phone & the "Metro" design language

In February 2009, Belfiore moved over to the Mobile Communications Business division, which was responsible for Windows Mobile. He became Director of Program Management and his team worked on the creation of the Metro user interface in upcoming Windows Phone 7, which had influences from previous Windows Media Center design, and was rolled-out to many other Microsoft products including Xbox 360 and Windows 8. [11]

In addition he led the effort to create Cortana and many other aspects of the platform; [15] he served as the face of the company's Windows Phone efforts.

Belfiore was forced to apologize in 2011 to unhappy Windows Phone 7 users after complaints that updates promised by Belfiore were not rolled out to users. [16]

On October 8, 2017, in response to a Twitter question about Windows Phone, Belfiore broke Microsoft's silence about the platform by saying it will continue to be supported for bug fixes and security only, but no new features or hardware. This clarified Microsoft's position that the platform, then having fallen below 1% market share, is on end of life support amid ongoing rumors of a "Surface Phone". [17] Media interpreted this tweet as a final confirmation that Windows Phone was "dead". [18] In a second tweet to another user he wrote:

We have tried VERY HARD to incent app devs. Paid money.. wrote apps 4 them.. but volume of users is too low for most companies to invest. :( [19]

Windows 10

In the summer of 2013, Belfiore was named the leader of the "PC/Tablet/Phone" vertical within the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, [20] responsible for delivering Windows 10 on PCs, tablets and phones. This group significantly updated the Windows desktop experience, owned and created the Cortana digital assistant, [21] and created the "Continuum" feature set, which enables 2-in-1 PCs (like the Surface) to transform between "PC Mode" and "Tablet Mode"; [22] and additionally enables Windows Phone devices to connect to a keyboard, mouse and monitor and work in a PC-like experience. The team was also responsible for apps built-in to Windows 10, including the rewrite of Internet Explorer as Microsoft Edge. [23]

In Fall 2015, after Windows 10 had shipped, Belfiore announced that he would take a 9-month leave of absence from Microsoft to travel around the world with his family aboard the MV World Odyssey. [24] While on this leave of absence, Belfiore was noted for using an iPhone, as well as a Galaxy S7, as two of his primary-use phones. [25] After returning from this leave-of-absence in 2016, Belfiore resumed his work on Windows 10 and, having been influenced by his use of non-Microsoft phones, announced many new features at Build 2017, notably including cross-platform features enabling "Windows PCs to love all your devices"—including iOS and Android phones. [26] [27] Going forward from that date, he became responsible for the mobile experiences of Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Launcher. [28]

Microsoft Office

In 2020 it was announced Belfiore would lead the Microsoft Office Experience Group, while still leading the group that involves Microsoft mobile apps for the iOS and Android platforms. [29]

On October 27, 2022, Belfiore announced his retirement from Microsoft, to be effective early summer 2023. [3]

Other ventures

The Game

Belfiore is also known for being the founder of the non-stop 24- to 48-hour treasure hunt The Game, run in the San Francisco Bay and Seattle areas. [30]

At TED 2004 in Monterey, California he delivered a TED Talk on "The Game" [2] where he caused the cell phones of most audience members to ring, leaving them with a trail of clues to solve at the TED conference.

Seattle Sounders ownership

In August 2019, Belfiore and his wife Kristina joined the ownership group of Seattle Sounders FC, a Major League Soccer club. [31]

Awards

His work on Windows 10 earned him kudos as Stuff magazine's #16 innovator of the year for 2015 [32] and in May 2013, he was recognized by Business Insider as the #10 Best Designer in Technology. [33]

Personal life

Belfiore is married to Kristina Belfiore who also graduated from Stanford in 1990 and worked at Microsoft for 32 years. They live in Bellevue, Washington and have 3 children. [34]

Related Research Articles

Microsoft Windows was announced by Bill Gates on 10 November 1983, 2 years before it was first released. Microsoft introduced Windows as a graphical user interface for MS-DOS, which had been introduced two years earlier. The product line evolved in the 1990s from an operating environment into a fully complete, modern operating system over two lines of development, each with their own separate codebase.

Microsoft Windows is a product line of proprietary graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and sub-families that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for a consumer or corporate workstation, Windows Server for a server and Windows IoT for an embedded system. Defunct families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and Windows Embedded Compact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Office</span> Suite of office software

Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketing term for an office suite, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, Object Linking and Embedding data integration and Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Mobile</span> Family of mobile operating systems by Microsoft (2000-2013)

Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft OneNote</span> Free-form note-taking app for personal computers and smartphones

Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking software developed by Microsoft. It is available as part of the Microsoft 365 suite and since 2014 has been free on all platforms outside the suite. OneNote is designed for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It gathers users' notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries. Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network.

Mobile app development is the act or process by which a mobile app is developed for one or more mobile devices, which can include personal digital assistants (PDA), enterprise digital assistants (EDA), or mobile phones. Such software applications are specifically designed to run on mobile devices, taking numerous hardware constraints into consideration. Common constraints include CPU architecture and speeds, available memory (RAM), limited data storage capacities, and considerable variation in displays and input methods. These applications can be pre-installed on phones during manufacturing or delivered as web applications, using server-side or client-side processing to provide an "application-like" experience within a web browser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tablet computer</span> Mobile computer with integrated display, circuitry and battery

A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers, have similar capabilities, but lack some input/output (I/O) abilities that others have. Modern tablets largely resemble modern smartphones, the only differences being that tablets are relatively larger than smartphones, with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally, and may not support access to a cellular network. Unlike laptops, tablets usually run mobile operating systems, alongside smartphones.

A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical/mobile laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are usually not considered mobile, as they were originally designed for desktop computers that historically did not have or need specific mobile features. This "fine line" distinguishing mobile and other forms has become blurred in recent years, due to the fact that newer devices have become smaller and more mobile, unlike the hardware of the past. Key notabilities blurring this line are the introduction of tablet computers, light laptops, and the hybridization of the two in 2-in-1 PCs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Phone</span> Family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft

Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it was primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metro (design language)</span> Design language introduced by Microsoft

Microsoft Design Language, previously known as Metro, is a design language created by Microsoft. This design language is focused on typography and simplified icons, absence of clutter, increased content to chrome ratio, and basic geometric shapes. Early examples of MDL principles can be found in Encarta 95 and MSN 2.0. The design language evolved in Windows Media Center and Zune and was formally introduced as Metro during the unveiling of Windows Phone 7. It has since been incorporated into several of the company's other products, including the Xbox 360 system software and the Xbox One system software, Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Outlook.com. Before the "Microsoft design language" title became official, Microsoft executive Qi Lu referred to it as the modern UI design language in his MIXX conference keynote speech. According to Microsoft, "Metro" has always been a codename and was never meant as a final product, but news websites attribute this change to trademark issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows RT</span> 2012 device-oriented operating system from Microsoft

Windows RT is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. It is a version of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 built for the 32-bit ARM architecture (ARMv7). First unveiled in January 2011 at Consumer Electronics Show, the Windows RT 8 operating system was officially launched alongside Windows 8 on October 26, 2012, with the release of three Windows RT-based devices, including Microsoft's original Surface tablet. Unlike Windows 8, Windows RT is only available as preloaded software on devices specifically designed for the operating system by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-PC era</span> Market trend

The post-PC era was a market trend observed during the late 2000s and early 2010s involving a decline in the sales of personal computers (PCs) in favor of post-PC devices; which include mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers as well as other mobile computers such as wearable and ubiquitous ones. These devices emphasize portability and connectivity, including the use of cloud-based services, more focused "apps" to perform tasks, and the ability to synchronize information between multiple devices seamlessly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Phone 8</span> Second generation of Microsofts Windows Phone mobile operating system

Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was succeeded by Windows Phone 8.1, which was unveiled on April 2, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Phone 7</span> First generation of Microsofts Windows Phone mobile operating system

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows 10</span> Tenth major release of Windows NT, released in 2015

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows 10 Mobile</span> Mobile operating system developed by Microsoft

Windows 10 Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile. First released in 2015, it is the successor to Windows Phone 8.1, but was marketed by Microsoft as being an edition of its PC operating system Windows 10.

Windows Insider is an open software testing program by Microsoft that allows users globally who own a valid license of Windows 11, Windows 10, or Windows Server to register for pre-release builds of the operating system previously only accessible to software developers.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phone Link</span> Software application developed by Microsoft

Phone Link, previously Your Phone, is a syncing software developed by Microsoft to connect Windows PCs to Android and iOS mobile devices to view notifications, make phone calls, use mobile apps amongst others, via the PC. It is a native component of Windows 10 and Windows 11, where it is a UWP app and consists of a driver that communicates with the Link to Windows app on the mobile device. Phone Link makes use of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth for voice calls, or mobile data; it syncs via Microsoft servers, meaning that an internet connection is required.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "2 veteran execs at Microsoft work to break down old barriers". The Seattle Times. May 28, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "TED Talk, The Game (Joe Belfiore, 2004)". Vimeo. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "The face of Windows Phone is leaving Microsoft". The Verge. October 27, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Board and Resource Council". Rainier Scholars. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  5. ↑ @joebelfiore (May 10, 2013). "Trivia: I was born & grew up in..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ↑ "CCC Alumni Joe Belfiore '86, Microsoft VP, visits CCC". November 29, 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Joe Belfiore Talks Windows XP Media Center Edition". winsupersite.com. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  8. ↑ US Patent 5757371 "Start Menu and Taskbar"(uspto.gov)
  9. ↑ "Joe Belfiore | Speakers | Channel 9". Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  10. ↑ Miller, Michael (October 12, 2005). "Windows 95". PC Magazine . Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2012. Joe Belfiore [...] is now general manager of the Windows eHome Division
  11. 1 2 "Microsoft Ignite - Join us November 14–17, 2023". Microsoft Ignite.
  12. ↑ "Media Center PCs to Support HD Cable". BetaNews. November 16, 2005. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  13. ↑ Leonhard, Woody (October 21, 2015). "End of an era: Microsoft's Joe Belfiore to take leave of absence". Computerworld.
  14. ↑ "Home". Archived from the original on April 19, 2008.
  15. ↑ "Microsoft's Joe Belfiore talks Windows Phone design decisions, apps, and updates". May 3, 2014. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  16. ↑ "How Microsoft can get Windows Phone 7 back on track". ZDNet .
  17. ↑ "Joe Belfiore breaks Microsoft's silence: Windows 10 Mobile is in maintenance mode, supports users moving to iOS or Android - OnMSFT.com". October 8, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Joe Belfiore admits Windows Phone is dead -- only bug fixes and security updates to come for Windows 10 Mobile". October 9, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Microsoft's Joe Belfiore just buried Windows Phone...on Twitter". Mashable . October 9, 2017.
  20. ↑ Foley, Mary Jo. "Who's who on Microsoft's new operating systems team". ZDNet. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  21. ↑ Pureinfotech - The Windows Site for Enthusiasts (January 25, 2015), Windows 10 demo by Microsoft's Joe Belfiore, January event in Redmond, Washington , retrieved October 4, 2016
  22. ↑ Windows (January 22, 2015), Sneak Peek: Experience Windows 10 for PCs , retrieved October 4, 2016
  23. ↑ "Microsoft's Joe Belfiore takes over Internet Explorer app development". November 12, 2013.
  24. ↑ "Joe Belfiore will take an extended leave from Microsoft until summer 2016". October 21, 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  25. ↑ Slater-Robins, Max. "The man in charge of Windows design explains why it doesn't matter that he uses an iPhone". Business Insider.
  26. ↑ "Transcript of Joe Belfiore's speech at Build 2017" (PDF).[ permanent dead link ]
  27. ↑ "A chief Microsoft engineer explains why Windows 10 is friend, not foe, to Apple and Android". Business Insider. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
  28. ↑ "Why Microsoft is splitting up Windows in its latest reorganization". ZDNet .
  29. ↑ "Big Microsoft reorg news: Panos Panay to head both Windows client and hardware, Joe Belfiore to Office, Jeff Teper to lead Teams (updated) - OnMSFT.com". February 5, 2020.
  30. ↑ "The Game". The Seattle Times. September 14, 2008.
  31. ↑ Evans, Jayda (August 13, 2019). "Russell Wilson, Ciara, Macklemore, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and more join Sounders ownership". The Seattle Times. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  32. ↑ "JOE BELFIORE – WINDOWS 10". Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  33. ↑ "THE DESIGN 75: The Best Designers In Technology". Business Insider . Retrieved April 6, 2014.
  34. ↑ "About Us". November 26, 2015.
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