At the moment, Microsoft has three operating systems for consumers to use in their hardware devices: Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 and Windows Phone 8. But what happens in the future? Will one or more of those systems get the boot? Julie Larson-Green, the Executive Vice President, Devices and Studios, for Microsoft, hinted this week that is indeed going to be the case.

In a Q&A held this week during the UBS Global Technology Summit (and transcribed by Microsoft) Larson-Green had this to say on where they see the entire Windows ecosystem going in the future:

We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three. We do think there's a world where there is a more mobile operating system that doesn't have the risks to battery life, or the risks to security. But, it also comes at the cost of flexibility. So we believe in that vision and that direction and we're continuing down that path.

Microsoft has already made steps towards integrating its versions of Windows, including most recently merging its Windows Store and Windows Phone Store accounts for developers. This could lead to a unified platform for publishing apps for both Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 without the need for separate code bases or store fronts.

During the same Q&A, Larson-Green gave a general tease about what their upcoming hardware products would be like, saying, "We're just getting started. So it's going to be lots of fun. I think we have a lot of exciting things coming. Next year you'll start to see some really exciting things."

Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft