The Consumer Electronics Association kicked off the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) tonight with a pre-show opening keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Entertainment & Devices President Robbie Bach.
During his keynote Ballmer showed current and future hardware shown on stage, including:
• A touch-enabled Windows 7 tablet PC from HP
• A Sony VAIO L all-in-one PC with a 24-inch touchscreen
• The Lenovo A300 with a 21.5-inch HD widescreen addition LED display
In, Ballmer announced that Microsoft and HP are teaming up on search and portal experiences. Bing will be the default search engine, and MSN the default homepage on HP PCs in 42 countries.
Following the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 in October, Ballmer announced the upcoming exclusive availability of the HTC HD2 in partnership with T-Mobile USA, Inc. and HTC.
Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division President Robbie Bach followed Ballmer on stage and outlined the company’s strategy of connecting the personal computer, mobile devices, television and the Internet. Bach also covered “Project Natal,” the controller-free gaming experience that tracks body movements and facial expressions and responds to voice commands and is scheduled to be available in holiday season 2010.
In lieu of an Ambien (or five), watch the video via Microsoft’s web site here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yawnfest as usual. Someone forgot to provide Fester with some content to go along with all that filler. The amount of nothingness they have to show for all their billions of dollars and 93,000 employees astounds even us. Microsoft is a company bereft of interesting ideas coasting on past intellectual property thefts and the benefits of largely-unpunished monopoly abuse that’s headed by a clueless buffoon who once got a very fortunate dorm assignment. The good news is, of course, that The Dark Ages of Personal Computing are rapidly coming to a close. Enjoy the renaissance!
Our customary toast: May Steve Ballmer remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes!
[UPDATE: Jan. 7, 2010, 11:59am ET: changed “laptop” to “PC” in Sony bullet point.]
yawn
i couldn’t get past the ‘tonites gonna be a good nite’ dross
ms really are pathetic
24 inch laptops are going to very popular with all the lard arse yanks like Ballmer because, unlike smaller versions, they won’t keep disappearing into the fat fleshy folds of their super sized thighs.
I have never understood why CES would have gates and now ballmer do their keynote. It sets a bad tone for the entire show. Not sure even jobs would be right, but at least he’d show useful technology.
“Funny” article on ballmer’s presentation:
http://tinyurl.com/ya9x3gj
I don’t know about anyone else here, but does Uncle Fester have the most annoying voice?
The reason bates & galmer get to do the keynote at CES every year is that m$ sponsers the CES. That way they appear to be leading all that electronic innovation-hmmmn
the 24″ touchscreen they showed is not a laptop, it’s an iMac knockoff from Sony, and it sucks! But the overall keynote is soooooooooo boring, it’s a complete snoozefest… and most of it is utter crap, not a single interesting thing, I had to stop halfway through, it was so unbearable to watch!!! Shame on Microsoft once more for being so friggin lame! It’s pathetic! How can anyone work for Microsoft with any sense of human dignity?
How much did M$ pay HP for the Bing preference over Google? Had to be a pile of money.
I’ll be impressed when Microsoft/DELL/HP comes out with a 42″ Finger & Body driven Touchscreen PLASMA Laptop DVD/BR/VHS Combo Drive with 512K RAM and a HD slot/interface to add up to 1TB drive which can be used for RAMDISK, optional RAM QUADRUPPLE Integrated USB/FIREWIRE/SVGA MULTIPORT.
Mmmmmm … search and portal experiences
@ ZuneTang
Once again, a tip of the hat. YOU blew me away!
I did play the video (mostly in the background), and apart from the pathos on display, what struck me was the contempt MS has for viewers. At a couple of points a notice was thrown up on the screen informing viewers that the segment would not be displayed “in respect of intellectual property….” But instead of editing out the secret segment and resuming the video at a later point, they made viewers sit through the entire secret segment, with the notice dead on the screen and music paying.
In short, THEY PUT VIEWERS ON HOLD!!! TWICE!!!
Incredible.
Welcome to the world’s most entertaining and brilliant venue for comic relief, sponsored by Microsoft.
(For the ones posting to MDN, wherever you are, are simply hilarious. Thanks for making my day!)
I tried to watch the video via the link. Silver light opened ok, and I paused at the 5 min mark to use the bathroom. Upon coming back, I clicked play and it went into an endless “buffering” loop.
OMG,,,,, its silverlight by Microsoft. The latest crap for the new decade…. LOL
Just a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, thought.
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en
Trumped by a mythical product that isn’t released yet. That has got to be FAIL
Oh, and a big hello to Zune Tang, I don’t see around much here these days; don’t be a stranger.
The sounds cuts off and goes up and down. so fitting for the microsoft site.
Another classic from you!
Superb!
You always crack me up!
Thanks so much.
John
@ Bream Rockmetteller
So, when does the wow start?
My nominee for best comment of the week!
“Microsoft is a company bereft of interesting ideas coasting on past intellectual property thefts and the benefits of largely-unpunished monopoly abuse that’s headed by a clueless buffoon who once got a very fortunate dorm assignment. “
Wow! What an amazing consolidation of MS history into a single sentence.
It’s complete amateur hour with Ballmer following other presenters on stage like nervous parent asking scripted question delivered like a 1970’s porn actor.
It’s worse than boring. Boring you can survive. It’s actually embarrassing. The would have better off with a paper press release without pictures.
Ugh, I watched for 8 minutes and I had to turn it off. Steve is so rough around the edges…why do they keep him as CEO?
CES Monkey Boy sez:
“We can all be so bullish” <– as in bullsh*t fest. BING! Gottcha.
“Today I am pleased to tell you that there are over 39 million Xboxes around the world” <– And only HALF of them work. Over 50% return rate due to bad hardware, the Red Ring of Death. Tell us all about THAT horror Monkey Boy.
MB neglects to point out that one of the prime reasons that PC sales FELL last year was VISTA. He fails to point out that PC sales ROSE this past year because PC buyers no longer had to get VISTA. He neglects to point out that 7ista is ‘the fastest selling OS in history’ because there is over 7 (S E V E N) years of pent up demand for something newer than Windows XP.
Great work at burying the facts there Monkey Boy. A true marketing moron.
AND for those who found Ballmer’s festival of deceit too boring or evil to watch, you’ll enjoy this:
During the demo of Window Media Center literally LOCKED UP on their PC.
Dead.
Unresponsive.
And they were ready for it! They had to swap their display over to ANOTHER PC running Windows Media Center. Utterly PATHETIC. But at least they knew it was going to FAIL and were prepared.
Almost verbatim they were saying ‘Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’ making excuse after excuse for parts of the demo that had CRASHED and were inaccessible. Think I’m kidding? Go watch and laugh and laugh.
This is Microsoft at work. This is garbage at play.
I’m a PC, and I just had a fatal error.
About halfway through Monkey Boy’s blahblah he started praising the quality of Silverlight, the technology they used to stream his CES Keynote.
OK, so why did the audio DROP OUT 5 times at my end during his keynote? Why did the decibel level gradually DOUBLE about a third of the way through the presentation. Was it crap production qualities? Or was it Silverlight?
“Windows PCs will ABSOLUTELY offer the greatest variety and the most interesting content and entertainment experience in the world.”
Until your PC crashes, which it did, live on stage. BWAHAHAHA!