On Monday night, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft (MSFT), made the preshow keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nev.; here are some of the notes I took that I thought might be relevant for current (and potential) investors in MSFT (I apologize for any misquotes; lots of fast talking):
Ballmer - “We have a chance in the next year to raise our game and our product line to the next level.”
The first presentation was for the new Windows Phones, and the main thing that I got out of it is that you are getting a difference experience than what you will find anywhere else (at least at this point) compared to the iOS/Android experience…
The Nokia (NOK) Lumia 710 will be available in the U.S. starting Wednesday for T Mobile subscribers.
The Nokia 900 will be available through all 2400 AT&T stores in the next “couple of months.”
Ballmer – “With the Windows Phone, we’re clearly on the right track.”
The next focus was on Windows PCs; there are more than 1.3 billion Window PCs in use around the planet today.
Tami Reller, chief marketing officer for Windows – “Windows 8 is more than the next version of Windows; it’s a new way of thinking about your PC… it brings together the potential of a tablet and the power of a PC.”
Reller – “Windows 8 will run on x86 and ARM,” as was announced a couple months ago, and a device running an Intel (INTC) chip was being demonstrated; as with the Phones, there was a lot covered, but it’s clear that Microsoft has looked to differentiate themselves from their competition, and in my opinion created a compelling offering.
Reller – “Our next big Windows 8 milestone will come in late February… and we hope you’ll download it and check it out.”
Windows 7 – 500 million users on the planet, and the greatest selling operating system of all time; Ballmer - “every Windows 7 PC will be ready for Windows 8 on day one.”
The next topic of discussion: Xbox; Microsoft was the world sales leader in the last year for consoles and has over 40 million Xbox Live subscribers at this time.
Greg Davidson, Microsoft’s Xbox team member – (using Bing search on the Xbox): “With Bing, you say it, and Xbox finds it… a single voice command and I can search across everything available now on Xbox: movies, TV shows, games, soundtracks; they’re all there.”
Kinect is coming to Windows on February 1; Microsoft is currently working with more than 200 companies on applications, including Toyota, Telefonica, American Express, and many more…
Office 2010 “has shot through the roof” – fastest selling version in Office history.
Office 365 – Ballmer: “a stunning success rate in competition with the other guys in cloud services.”
Ballmer closed by saying, “There’s nothing more important at Microsoft than Windows,” with 2012 being about “Metro, Metro, Metro” and “Windows, Windows, Windows.”
Link to event video - here
Ballmer - “We have a chance in the next year to raise our game and our product line to the next level.”
The first presentation was for the new Windows Phones, and the main thing that I got out of it is that you are getting a difference experience than what you will find anywhere else (at least at this point) compared to the iOS/Android experience…
The Nokia (NOK) Lumia 710 will be available in the U.S. starting Wednesday for T Mobile subscribers.
The Nokia 900 will be available through all 2400 AT&T stores in the next “couple of months.”
Ballmer – “With the Windows Phone, we’re clearly on the right track.”
The next focus was on Windows PCs; there are more than 1.3 billion Window PCs in use around the planet today.
Tami Reller, chief marketing officer for Windows – “Windows 8 is more than the next version of Windows; it’s a new way of thinking about your PC… it brings together the potential of a tablet and the power of a PC.”
Reller – “Windows 8 will run on x86 and ARM,” as was announced a couple months ago, and a device running an Intel (INTC) chip was being demonstrated; as with the Phones, there was a lot covered, but it’s clear that Microsoft has looked to differentiate themselves from their competition, and in my opinion created a compelling offering.
Reller – “Our next big Windows 8 milestone will come in late February… and we hope you’ll download it and check it out.”
Windows 7 – 500 million users on the planet, and the greatest selling operating system of all time; Ballmer - “every Windows 7 PC will be ready for Windows 8 on day one.”
The next topic of discussion: Xbox; Microsoft was the world sales leader in the last year for consoles and has over 40 million Xbox Live subscribers at this time.
Greg Davidson, Microsoft’s Xbox team member – (using Bing search on the Xbox): “With Bing, you say it, and Xbox finds it… a single voice command and I can search across everything available now on Xbox: movies, TV shows, games, soundtracks; they’re all there.”
Kinect is coming to Windows on February 1; Microsoft is currently working with more than 200 companies on applications, including Toyota, Telefonica, American Express, and many more…
Office 2010 “has shot through the roof” – fastest selling version in Office history.
Office 365 – Ballmer: “a stunning success rate in competition with the other guys in cloud services.”
Ballmer closed by saying, “There’s nothing more important at Microsoft than Windows,” with 2012 being about “Metro, Metro, Metro” and “Windows, Windows, Windows.”
Link to event video - here
