Steve Ballmer CES 2009 KeyNote + Windows 7 Beta
Update: The beta of Windows 7 will be available world wide on Friday, the 9th of Jan, 2009. For TechEd and MSDN customers – 7th Jan.
CES 2009 KeyNote: Here’s a real-life account of the keynote as it happens -
6:29 pm - A blank stage, with two strangely dressed guys beat-boxing.
6:30 pm – Garry Shapiro (head CES, I guess) is introduced. He looks like he’s forcing himself to be excited about CES. Does mention that CES is the place to find out where the industry is headed. Have to agree with that. Mr. Shapiro seems really happy to be introducing Steve Ballmer – wonder why? Talking about how Mr. Ballmer got 800 in his SATs – is that really impressive?
A mention of Microsoft’s 7 different businesses – just 7?
6:34 pm – They’re showing some random video – Microsoft software + shiny, happy people. Gears of War 2 clips, someone using a windows powered phone, lots of other strangely out of place stuff.
6:36 pm – Steve Ballmer is out on stage. Hands on Hips – “So this is CES”.
A lot of confidence. Some good jokes – Jerry Yang complaining about Steve ignoring his facebook requests; BillG telling Steve to make sure he doesn’t land up at MacWorld by mistake.
Some stuff about Microsoft’s impact etc. etc.
6:38 pm – A good point that ‘There really is no turning back from a connected life’. Also talking about how innovation and innovation in technology will continue to drive us forward, even through this recession.
Opportunity in 3 areas -
- Convergence of 3 screens – PC, phone, and TV. 5 billion people have never owned a PC. Talks about Netbooks + 1 laptop per child. Single seamless ecosystem – anytime, anywhere communication. TV as the least evolved.
- How you will be able to interact with your PC and other devices in a more natural way. PC able to see you and hear you. Speech, handwriting, and gesture – how we interact with phones, TVs, and computers.
- Connected Experiences – the end of silos and a common experience across devices and situations. The Internet cloud is connecting all your devices seamlessly. The last mile.
6:45 pm – First time I’ve heard Steve Ballmer talk and he’s good. very good.
Talks about Windows remaining the centre of people’s technological solar system. Windows – extending to the phone, and the cloud.
Windows – the language that over a billion people speak across the world.
Windows – nothing without the great hardware that it works on.
6:46 pm -> some of the cool products. the good stuff.
- Lots of products being released.
- Minew S310?
- Acer, Toshiba laptops.
- Sony Vaio TT.
- U6V bamboo Asus.
- lenovo ideapad. thinkpad.
- Qosmio X305 Toshiba.
- HP TouchSmart PC.
- hp firebird.
- xperia from Sony Ericsson.
- HTC TouchHD + TouchPro.
- Samsung Omnia.
Products that feature Windows Live, Windows Mobile + Windows Vista.
6:50 pm- Talks about the economy and people looking for value + that PC presents the best option. I am a PC. obvious jab to Apple.
PC enabled -
- More applications + let them work together.
- More choice in hardware.
- Windows offered more as an ecosystem.
A big opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.
6:51 pm – Transforming Windows from an OS to a connected experience across the TV, the phone, and the computer.
A life without Walls.
Windows 7 – woohoo.
simplicity, reliability, speed. Windows 7 – everyday tasks faster. boot more quickly, fewer alerts, longer battery life. new media center experience, ability to easily access your media. cool new user interface things like touch.
Announce releasing the beta of windows 7 for TechNet and MSDN customers. Friday – In 2 days – beta available worldwide.
Windows Live – 3 Big Announcements.
- Windows Live Essentials – Release of Windows Live Mail + Photo Editor etc. for XP, Vista and 7.
- Partnership with Facebook – Windows Live + Facebook.
- Partnership with Dell – to preinstall Windows Live Essentials + Windows Search on all their home and small business PCs.
Also, announcing partnership with Verizon to have Windows Live Search on all Verizon phones.
Demonstration of Windows 7 – Charlotte Jones. After that, Robbie Bach on Television and Connected Experiences.
Here’s the big Windows 7 demo -
Its pretty straightforward – nothing new that I can find. Talking about jumplists and two windows at the same time, and other Windows 7 stuff we already know about.
Makes me appreciate Ballmer’s speaking skills more.
Walking through HomeGroup. A real life touch-screen example. Surface Globe – that looks really close. I’ve seen the video – however, seeing it in real life rocks.
It really is a completely different way of interacting with a computer.
Samsung Omnia example – 5 megapixel camera and an impressive example of taking a panoramic shot.
I really don’t like this strategy of using your 1 established product (i.e. windows os) to try to get 2 other obvisouly laking products (i.e. live and mobile) traction. Just not worth it. The integration with Facebook is a good one. An example of IE8 accelerators. Reminds me of ubiquity in firefox.
Windows Live What’s New – everyone wants to be FriendFeed. What a waste of energy.
A reservation at Nobu. Aren’t we in a recession.
The people are clapping for some random feature called QuickAdd.
I’m getting bored – you have an OS with multi-touch and you’re talking about having a little video avatar. God.
Microsoft have arguably single most important piece of software coming out in Windows 7 and I had a woman show me her ‘kissy lips’ avatar for her husband. The pain.
I’m signing out. It’s 45 minutes and the inanity of the last 5 minutes has gotten to me. And now they have some band called Tripod playing. Nice Voices – never heard of them before.
Robbie Bach – Connected Entertainment.
Connecting with friends and family. Creating social experiences that brings people together.
Ford Sync with TellMe included. Zune had a great year – are you kidding me?
Doubled the number of people on Zune social to well over 2 million – wow, that is news.
TV – MediaCenter. 10 million unique users a month. Average session time is about 90 minutes. Media Center in Windows 7 – huge. 2.9 million people who are subscribers to services provided by MediaRoom – Microsoft’s ipTV solution.
MediaRoom is something I don’t know about.
Xbox had a spectacular year – I have to agree. Wii won – however Xbox won the hard core gamer market. Very high attach rate. Sub $200 – this is where the majority of consoles get sold in any generation of consoles.
17 million members on Xbox Live. 70% growth in 2008. This is really, really impressive. People are letting the Wii distract them – however, Xbox and Xbox live are becoming a Microsoft monster.
Halo Wars + Halo 3 ODST. Halo as the defining connected gaming experience. Feb 28th release of Halo Wars. Downloadable demo starting Feb 5th, 2009. Halo 3 ODST – ships in the fall. Also, MS has sold 25 million copies across the Halo fanchise.
Xbox Live – Dramatic increase in downloads – up 60% since MS launched NXE. In first 5 years, 10 billion hours of gameplay and social interaction – also known as wasting time. And here I was thinking myspace and facebook had that market covered.
Xbox Live PrimeTime – scheduled programming. 1 Vs the 100. Launches in the Spring. An interesting program. Spring 2009. The crowd at CES seems to like it.
NetFlix through Xbox 360 – I did know about that, and it’s definitely a good step. Real Time High Definition streaming movies and tv. Pretty cool fast forwarding.
NetFlix mobile app – available later this week on Windows Mobile app stor – didn’t even know there was one.
Xbox Live – 60 million song downloads for Lips, Rock Band, etc.
Weekends are becoming interactive music experiences. Rock Band, and more.
They have a 12 year old girl up on stage demoing how to modify your game. And create wisps. It seems really, really complicated. This must be the birghtest 12 year old in the known universe.
Robbie Bach is playing against a 12 year old in a game she created. I really don’t know what to say. He seems mighty pleased.
So Microsoft aims to connect people’s entertainment experiences.
Ballmer’s back – and he does have a powerful voice.
Three trends -
- Increase in Speed replaced by increases in Processors – Writing applications that take advantage of multi-processors.
- Screens will be everywhere.
- PCs, phones, and the internet will become a single platform for creating experiences.
A lot of exciting things ahead. Janet Galore from Microsoft Research with some prototypes -
- A Digital Textbook – a kindle competitor. Pulling in information from the cloud.
- An eInk type display – except it had color, and animation, and looked really good.
Good Night from Mr. Ballmer.
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Filed under: Microsoft