CES 2011: Steve Ballmer looks back at Microsoft’s 2010 highlights

Matthew Hanson | News, Technology | 06/01/2011 06:59am
3 Comments

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took to the stage today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to talk about the fantastic year that Microsoft had – and to offer a glimpse of what the future will hold.2010 was certainly a major year for Microsoft with the big launches of Windows Phone 7, Kinect for Xbox 360 and the beta version of Internet Explorer 9.

“[2010] was a very, very exciting year for our customers. We launched Windows Phone 7, Office 2010, and Kinect, and we introduced Internet Explorer 9 and Office 365. We saw great growth in our Bing and Azure services, and with the amazing success of Windows 7, it’s truly been a year like none other” said Steve Ballmer as he began his keynote address.  He then turned his attention to what 2011 and beyond will bring for Microsoft and its customers.

“The products that I mentioned resulted from big technology bets that we’ve made. Bets on the cloud, natural user interface, new smart client technology, machine learning.”

He then showed off several demos that he said demonstrate the impact of some of those technology bets will have in the future regarding TV, Xbox, Windows Phone, and the Windows PC.

Steve Ballmer started with Xbox, announcing Avatar Kinect, which lets you can meet up with friends in virtual environments. What’s more, face recognition means your avatar can also move with your motions and facial expressions.

In the US, users will be able to use Kinect to control Netflix and Hulu.

So far, Microsoft has also sold an impressive 8 million Kinect units –  significantly more than the 5 million units the company had expected to sell in 2010. 50 million Xboxes have so far been shipped.

Another big success story for Microsoft in 2010 was the launch of Windows Phone 7, and Steve Ballmer promised an exciting year ahead for the mobile operating system, including the launch of Fable for Windows Phone 7. “Windows Phone 7 is dramatically different from other phones,” said Ballmer.

Manufacturers sold more than 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 phones in the first six weeks of availability, said Aaron Woodman, director of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft. “The reality is, this launch was the first of many steps,” he said, adding that people who have bought the phone are giving it great reviews. “Product satisfaction is the most important figure to us, and we have the highest product satisfaction number we’ve ever had.”

Windows 7 computers weren’t forgotten either – as Steve Ballmer praised Windows 7 PCs for being the “best selling PCs” ever – comprising 20 per cent of the PCs connected to the internet. The operating system shifts seven copies a second. He also thanked the 20 million beta users of IE9 and announced that Microsoft Docs is the second biggest web app on Facebook.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 6:59 and is filed under News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

Tags: CES, Internet Explorer 9, microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Windows 7, Windows Phone 7