So, just watched Ballmer and crew do their dance at CES 2011 in Vegas.
Here are the major takeaways from all this..
- Microsoft is working with multiple partners on the “Next version of Windows”.
- They plan to offer Windows in all form factors with “no compromise”.
- So far they are not showing any real UI changes for Windows 8.
- We don’t even know that the name for the next version of Windows will be “Windows 8”. they are not referring to it even casually.
- They seem to have some excitement in the Kinect area and XBOX Live etc.
- They seem excited about Windows Phone 7 but I am still not sold.
- Windows 8 will feel smooth and run fast on multiple platforms.
- They demoed Surface 2 and the new surface look and feel is pretty cool.
- We still have no idea what Windows 8 will look like.
- We have no idea what the timeline will be.
- It was a pretty good demo, uneven in spots but pretty cool.
- They demoed Iron Man 2 to show the stability of the Next Version of Windows and it was fine.
- I still believe this may be called Windows 365 by the time it’s all said and done.
- Microsoft do look like they have been innovating.
- Cool partnerships with Hulu, Netflix and ESPN.
- Interesting use of Kinect and a cool demo.
- New trend to watch out for use of Kinect “No controller needed” to fast forward or resume movies
- 8 million Kinects sold..
- Tons of Windows 7 license have been sold
It was a solid demo.
Nothing new to report on Windows 8 but worth the wait…
Remember, you should be able to watch this again here…
I’m off to bed..
I thought it was a waste of time. All the blogs were saying they would show Windows 8 and they didnt…
MASSIVE FAIL…
Basically he told Steve Jobs and the Android OS….”I got nothing…”
Basically he told the mobile phone users..”I got nothing to show how the actual sales to consumers of my Windows Phone 7.”
The fail is strong in this one.
They did show Windows 8 although a very early version running on ARM.
They even play Iron Man 2 smoothly on this prototype.
But it was not shown in the keynote.
I agree that this keynote was a bit disappointing, besides Surface 2.0 but we at least know that Microsoft bet a lot, at least much more than on Windows 7, on Windows 8.
If it is a failure, it will hurt a lot Microsoft.
However, if it is a success along with the strategy they are building around it, it will help them a lot of for the years to come.
If i were them i would work hard with all their partners to release Windows 8 along with a significant revolution of PC hardware and release at the same time an updated version of Windows 7 for legacy hardware.
By revolution, i mean:
*Revolutionnary CPU whom Sandy bridge and Fusion are only the precursors
*Next gen motherboard
*Built-in next gen sensor
*Default SSD for the O.S and applications, with a second storage unit for data and settings,etc…
Moreover they should manage to release an O.S which doesn’t lag at all.
The applications can lag, but the U.I and the O.S should never lag.
I am finding deeply annoying that Windows 7 lags from time to time.
Iron Man 2 was shown in the keynote. Ballmer introduced a guy who showed it toward the end…
Really ?
I thought that it was Steven Sinofsky who shows in another showcase.
I think that they both did…