Thứ Sáu, 6 tháng 1, 2012

CES: Don't Expect Big News From The Ballmer Keynote

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will give an historic keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday night. It will be the 14th time in the last 15 years that either Ballmer or his predecessor Bill Gates will deliver the kick-off speech at the giant annual gadget fest – and it will be the last time. The company recently said that it does not plan to participate in future editions of the show.
While it would be nice to think Ballmer the Bombastic will go out with a bang – and I would note here that the man doesn’t even whisper quietly – it seems more likely that the event will offer little in the way of substantial news.
Ballmer will likely focus on three key areas in his talk – Windows Phone, Xbox and Windows. The one big piece of news at CES a year ago was that Microsoft is planning to offer a version of Windows 8 compatible with ARM-based processors; this year’s show is unlikely to feature any developments even close to that one in terms of importance.
  • On Xbox, the news is largely out, with the company’s recent upgrade to the game console’s interface. Expect some demonstrations of the newer features of Kinect, and likely some new games, and possibly some content partnerships. But not much else. In one almost certain tidbit of news, they are likely to provide some updated numbers on the installed based of Xbox users and Xbox Live subscribers.
  • On Windows Phone, you can expect the company to show off a variety of new gadgets. Don’t be surprised to see some of the mobile device makers on stage. But again, the chances of seeing anything dramatically new on the phone front are low.
  • On Windows 8, the company will almost certainly do a demo, and almost as certainty will include only features they have already demonstrated at previous events. The company is still targeting a late February debut for the beta version of the software; a full-fledged launch is widely expected in the 2012 second half. What you likely will see is the usual assortment of new Windows-based devices, including some ultrabooks, which promise to be everywhere at the show this year.
  • On online services and Bing, expect little in the way of new developments.
We’ll have complete live coverage of the Ballmer keynote on Forbes.com Monday night; you can see all of our CES reporting at Forbes.com/ces.

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