We Got Served

Steve Ballmer this evening kicked off CES 2010 with Microsoft’s traditional pre-show keynote speech. Jim and I were fortunate enough to be in the front row, where we saw a power outage nearly scupper the whole shebang.

Multiple reboots later, the Microsoft CEO took the stage where he recapped on Microsoft’s 2009 achievements in Windows 7, embedded automobile technologies delivered by Ford and Fiat as well as Windows Mobile 6.5 and Zune.

Clearly, Microsoft have shipped a lot of product in 2009, but we’re here for a glimpse of the future, not of the past, right?

Ryan Asdourian joined Ballmer on stage showed off a variety of hardware devices, from nettops to an ASUS 3D laptop before diving into some of the future software and hardware experiences we can expect to see from Microsoft this year.

• Blio, an e-book service and reader application offering over a million titles, with embedded video and other rich content.
• Online collaboration powered by Office 2010
• Bing’s Streetside technology, bringing streetviews (and snow effects!) to Bing Maps
• CableCARD tuners in Windows Media Center providing the ability to record 4 HD channels simultaneously
• CBS content integrated into the Windows Media Center UI, powered by Silverlight
• Microsoft Mediaroom coming to XBOX360 for AT&T U-Verse Subscribers providing video on demand
• A demo of Mediaroom video on demand content integrated in both Windows Media Center and Windows Mobile, allowing content purchased on one device to be viewable in the other
• A new Slate PC format was shown off with devices from Archos, Pegatron and HP coming later in the year

Robbie Bach, President of Entertainment and Devices (think Zune, Xbox and Windows Media Center) was next up and bigged up Xbox Live before getting into the good stuff for 2010:

• Exclusive new games, including Halo Reach and Alan Wake, an “episodic psychological thriller”
• Game Room, a new collection of retro arcade favourites with the ability to play against friends on Xbox Live and a Windows PC
• Project Natal, a natural user interface for Xbox 360 allowing full control of compatible games just through body movement and air gestures – coming in Q4 2010

and… it all ended a bit abruptly. Robbie Bach left the stage having demoed, well, not a lot at all and there was no big surprise. No Microsoft Courier, no demo of Natal, no look at WinMo 7 and no real outline of what the new Slate form factor could do that Windows XP Tablet PC Edition couldn’t.

All in all, it was a pretty flat keynote – not helped by the power outage, but certainly not a classic in terms of rich content. More a remix of recent successes rather than the exciting glimpse into the future we’d expect from a pre-show keynote. Note to Microsoft, when the most interesting thing in your keynote is a power cut, it’s time for a rethink.