BILL GATES WHERE ARE YOU? Really, come back. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opened up CES last night with what has to be one of the more banal speeches I’ve seen.
While insiders had expected Microsoft to use its keynote slot to debut a tablet-sized computer, all Ballmer did was briefly demonstrate a few tablet-sized computers (he called them “slates”) that run on Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. Ballmer demonstrated the device running the Amazon Kindle desktop application with the book "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer.
The cover of the book shows a pair of hands cradling an “apple.” If Ballmer actually planned that, I give him some credit.
However he did not announce a Microsoft tablet computer as was predicted by the New York Times, in fact he didn’t really announce anything new. It was more of a 90-minute update. To make things worse the presentation started 25 minutes late due to a power outage.
Ballmer spent most of his time highlighting the company’s past successes, like Windows 7, Xbox 360, Zune HD portable music player and its search engine Bing. Thirty-nine million Xbox 360s have been sold and game sales have totaled $20 billion worldwide, and Bing has gained 11 million new users in recent months, he said.
One mildly interesting point he made is that Microsoft sees its customer base as the “global middle class” which he says will jump from 1 billion to 4 billion people in coming decades. How this will be achieved was left for the audience to ponder. Perhaps the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will single-handedly pull 3 billion people out of poverty so they can play Xbox 360s together.
At least that would be news. No matter, Ballmer added that "I’m bullish, and we can all be bullish in terms of the long-term prospects of our industry."
Ballmer spent a great deal of time speaking about entertainment and gaming, and here he actually presented a bit of news. He updated the audience on Microsoft’s Project Natal, a new controller-free video gaming system, which reads players body movements with cameras and mimics them with avatars on screen. The news about the existence of Natal is old, but for first time he announced that the controller will be available for sale this coming holiday season.
Ballmer did not indicate how much the system will cost, although he added that Natal will function with its existing Xbox 360 gaming console.
Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s president for entertainment and devices, was also on hand to announce a number of new games for the Xbox, including a new edition of the popular game Halo due out in the spring. Bach also noted that AT&T will soon enable its U-verse IPTV system for delivery via Xbox Live.
Ballmer and Windows senior product manager Ryan Asdourian also took time to showcase just how successful the launch of the Windows 7 operating system has been,
By the end of the presentation I was hoping to see Microsoft unveil a time machine so they could give me back the 90 minutes of time I lost listening. Thankfully it wasn’t all Ballmer and we did see a video of Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers “thanking technology” for changing his life. It was quite funny and can be found here.
