Although Microsoft has stated that the keynote address they delivered tonight to kick of CES 2012 would be there last, Gary Shapiro, the President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, left open a few holes for a sequel during his opening remarks and introduction of Steve Ballmer.
The keynote opened with a video remix which featured highlights from past Microsoft CES Keynotes:
Following the video Ryan Seacrest came on stage to host the final Microsoft CES keynote in an interview style format with Steve Ballmer. The keynote included demos of Windows Phone, Windows 8, Xbox 360 with Kinect and did have a couple of tidbits for news that were not expected. Plus if you paid close attention to some of the screen shots you could pick up on a few other items as well.
Here is a run down of my notes during the keynote:
- 1.3 billion Windows PC’s world wide which makes it the most popular smart device in the world.
- During the Windows 8 demo, which was apparently done on a much more recent build of Windows 8 than the developer preview, we saw a few new tiles on the Windows 8 Start Screen including Xbox Live, Cut The Rope, USA Today and Evernote. Yes, the Desktop tile was still there. The demo did show some better mouse interaction with the Windows 8 Start Screen than we get right now in the developer preview.
- Once again a confirmation that the Windows 8 Beta and the Windows Store will be out in late February as previously discussed. Windows 8 will be available globally in over 100 languages and the Windows Store will be in over 200 markets.
- At the end of the Windows 8 demo it was announced that Dell would be entering the ultrabook fray tomorrow with a new product announcement.
- Windows 7 is best selling OS of all times with over 500 million users and they continue to license approximately 1 copy every 7 seconds.
- Every PC that runs Windows 7 or is built for Windows 7 will run Windows 8 on day 1 of its release.
- Xbox 360 continues to roll. Over 66 million Xbox users and 40 million Xbox Live users. That is an increase of 16 and 10 million respectively compared to last years CES numbers.
- Over 18 million Kinect devices have been sold since it was released in November of 2010.
- Xfinity will soon be launching their app for Xbox 360 which will provide on demand access to their video library through the console.
- News Corporation will will release their own app for the Xbox 360 that will carry the Wall Street Journal, Fox News Channel and IGN.
- Xbox 360 has truly become your all in one entertainment device for the living room.
- Kinect for Windows will be released on 01 February.
- 200 million people used Skype in the last year and totaled up 300 billion minutes of voice and video.
The Kinect for Windows and News Corp App announcements were news that had not been heard before so we did get a couple of tidbits from the keynote however, all of the other information has been discussed on many levels over the last year.
You can watch the final Microsoft CES Keynote on demand already from the Microsoft CES 2012 page.
