Microsoft has posted the Microsoft Surface Keynote from the event in Los Angeles, California yesterday and thanks to The Verge I can embed it from their YouTube channel.
I sat and watched this entire keynote this afternoon and really enjoyed the presentation. It was interesting to hear the reaction of the tech press that were onsite for the reveal and what I believe was genuine enthusiasm for the features they discussed about the new tablets. I was pleased to see/hear it as well as Microsoft really did take everyone by surprise with this announcement and the super secret development of this tablet and the Touch Cover.
Now as is typical with these kind of events you get Steve Ballmer kicking things off and doing the big reveal of the Surface tablets and then he hands it off to Steven Sinofsky to provide more details about the WinRT Device.
You can go to 9:50 in the above video to see the name reveal that Steve Ballmer introduced which also darkened the room and gave him a chance to go grab one of the tablets. Shortly afterwards he brings Steven Sinofsky, the Windows Division President at Microsoft, to talk about the Windows RT Surface.
At 20:30 into the above video Steven brings Michael Angiulo, President of the Microsoft Hardware division, on stage to talk about the other Microsoft Surface Slate called Windows 8 Pro.
This is the point the tone changes in the keynote. Up to now the previous speakers have been using prompts and cuing from off camera monitors to help them move through the info on the devices. I get that because, just like in the military, the higher ups are familiar with the mission/device/info, but use tools to help them cover all the info accurately.
However, and again just like in the military, when the folks directly involved step up and start talking about things you sense a shift in the tone. They are intimately familiar with the product, its development and the backstory.
Starting at 20:30 in the video with Michael Angiulo the passion starts to become more apparent as he rarely, if at all, seems to use the prompters. He knows the ins and outs of the device including the design and manufacturing process and the thought process behind it all.
At just under 29 minutes into the keynote we get to hear from Panos Panay, the leader of the team that developed Microsoft Surface and the Touch Cover.
Now you get to hear passion oozing out of his pores.
He starts off his segment of the keynote letting us see and hear from the team behind Microsoft Surface. His eyes are on the crowd the entire time, never glancing at a monitor for a reminder because it is not needed. He knows this product intimately. He knows the effort and time that has been invested in it by the team.
This is his teams day in the tech world not his day on stage. Like a new father he is excited to show this new child to all the visitors there in Los Angeles and to share with them his teams efforts.
It is nice to see that kind of passion unabashedly displayed as it can be very rare these days.
