CES 2009: Ballmer Keynote Doesn’t Quite Fit The Bill

By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, January 8, 2009

Las Vegas — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is no Bill Gates — at least when it comes to delivering a star-packed CES keynote address.

Instead of bringing out the likes of Conan O’Brien, Ballmer, with the help of a few other Microsoft execs, made

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer.

a few product announcements and discussed the economy before calling it a day.

Ballmer’s biggest news item was the release this week of the beta version of the Windows 7 operating system.

Windows 7 will load faster and be kinder to notebook batteries, Ballmer said.

In addition, an upgrade to Windows Live will shortly become available as a free download. The major change is the ability to automatically import a user’s Facebook data. Ballmer also announced that Dell will pre-install Live on all its consumer and business computers.

In another deal, Verizon will make Live Search available on its mobile devices for the next five years.

In gaming, Microsoft will launch two new versions in its Halo series. First is Halo Wars, the first incarnation of the game intended to have a Teen rating. It was described as more of a strategy game than an outright first-person shooter. It will hit stores in late February. Following it this year will be Halo 3 ODST. An exact release date was not given. Pricing for both games was not mentioned.

Ballmer continued to espouse Microsoft’s vision of convergence of the mobile phone, PC and television. He sees this being done via the various versions of Windows for the home PC, mobile devices and even the TV.

Ballmer, using his usual self-confident manner, tried to imbue the crowd with some optimism for the economy.

“The economic impact will be with us for a long time, and while it feels like we are in a time of reduced expectations, we have to be aggressive in innovation during this time,” he said, adding that companies that maintain their aggressive posture will be better situated to take advantage of the economy once it recovers.

The overall tone of Ballmer’s first CES keynote was drastically different than what his predecessor brought to the show during the previous 15 years, and show attendees seemed to expect this. Pre-keynote lines were very short compared with the Gates’ years; however, the Venetian’s ballroom did eventually fill up to capacity.