ballmer

We keep hearing various time-frames for the release of Windows Phone 7. Usually "holiday season" is tossed around, which here in the States stretches from mid-October (if you count Halloween) through January 2nd.

Some of us have been hearing October as the big month, but we're not even sure if that's just announcing products or actual release date. For instance, we can see Microsoft back here in NYC at their "Open House" event kicking off WP7 with a bunch of OEMs and developers, but not releasing till...well later.

Ballmer today is India, once again doing what he does best, giving speeches and pep talks, much like an impromptu Chris Farley. In response to a question about WP7, Ballmer reportedly had this to say:

We have to deliver devices with our partners this Christmas...We have got our work cut out on Windows Phone 7, but we are good competitors.

We suppose this isn't really news if they do "deliver" by Christmas, after all that is still the Holiday season.  But we can't help but wish it was more October-ish? And to throw in a zinger, he also reportedly said this

One of our competitors seems a little confused, has come out with two operating systems that I cannot tell the difference between.

Ahem, not sure if he should be throwing stones on such a day as this one, but okay.

[via @nimishdubey & @cellpassion]

So often in the gadget business, you know something without actually “knowing.” For example, we’ve known Windows Mobile 7 was coming for quite a while, though it is only now being confirmed. Likewise, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer making some noise at Mobile World Congress in regards to Windows Phone (potentially Windows Mobile 7) was mentioned in passing at CES (and a couple other times since then); but now it’s officially official.

According to Microsoft’s News Center, Steve Ballmer will be hosting a press conference to discuss Windows Phone at MWC. Slated for Feb. 15 -- that's next Monday -- the press conference will be streaming live and viewable from Microsoft’s Windows Phone page. After the conclusion of the press conference, an on demand version will be made available.

With as rampant as the speculation has become over WM7 and what it will or will not include, we’re not going to read much into the fact that this is only a press conference instead of a full-blown keynote. We’ll be there Monday to watch it go down.

By now it's hardly a secret that we're expecting some sort of Zune integration in Windows Mobile 7. Microsoft has been fairly coy about it, though nobody's really been buying that.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (that's him on the right) dropped word today during The Engadget Show that Zune will be coming to the next version of Windows Mobile.

For Zune he says Windows Mobile is going to get integration in the next release -- which is a comforting thought, if perhaps a bit late.

So there you have it. Good riddance, Windows Media Player.

Everyone is hurting this year and even the head-honchos at Microsoft have received a small cut in pay as a result. That would Ballmer & Liddell and the rock stars Bach-Elop-Turner Overdrive.

Sure the numbers are all over the place: base salary went up slightly while cash incentive payments went down and lets face it, Ballmer is far from poor as a result.

Still, as the article points out some of the base salary was set before the economic downturn and more importantly, Microsoft has a considerably low base salary for all their executives when compared to some other industries, ahem. Instead, their real income is through stock options and therefore tied directly to company performance, which we think makes sense and all.

We're just glad we guess that Microsoft seems relatively down to earth in terms of executive compensation.  There, we said something nice.  Now can someone please take care of our ridiculous college loans?  Thanks!

[Source: Seattle Times]

 File under: Awkward! At the CIO summit yesterday, Steve Ballmer got an uncomfortable question from the audience that, well, has been on a lot of people's minds:

"With platforms like the Google phone and iPhone coming out, it’s really tough to continue to stand behind Windows Mobile when our employees are bringing these consumer devices into our environments,” the questioner explained. “And in your presentation you put Windows Mobile right in the center there, but it was a phone that doesn’t work in America and an operating system that you haven’t released. I’m wondering what your commitment is to continuing to get newer versions of the operating system in our hands so that we don’t have to fight this battle on the ground.”

Ballmer's response was basically "we're getting to it" and he pointed out that, yes, Windows Mobile sold more units than the iPhone did last year.  As WinMo fans, it might have been nice to have Ballmer point out some of the platform's advantages over the iPhone -- but we have to grant that many of these advantages are more likely to appeal to the nerd / IT manager than they are to the consumer.  Setting cross-platform sniping aside, the most interesting part of Ballmer's response to us was this little nugget:

“We have a significant release coming this year,” he said. “Not the full release we wanted to have this year but we have a significant release coming this year with Windows Mobile 6.5"

Emphasis ours above -- apparently Microsoft "wanted" to have Windows Mobile 7 ready to rock this year.  It's not exactly a surprise, sure, but it's still nice to hear from the horse's mouth.  Ballmer says that they've put a team in place that will be able to "accelerate" development for Windows Mobile to deliver the "things people want on the highest-end phones."

Anybody out there in a WinMo shop, facing a user insurrection asking for competing platforms?

TechFlash via Digital Daily

We're live at the Steve Ballmer Keynote for CES 2009. What to expect? Could be anything, we're just hoping for more than Bill Gates' standard "kitchen of the future" fare.

You know what to do: click through!

Update: We're all finished up, click through to read our live blog archive and -- even better -- see images from the keynote!

You know us. We can't pass up an opportunity to say “I told you so.” It's a weakness, really. So when Ina Fried reported on Steve Ballmer's comments during Mix '08 (the same place where Ballmer gave us Monkey Dance Redux), our beady, self-aggrandizing eyes lit up when we came to the section about the acquisition of Sidekick-maker Danger:

“The Danger acquisition is really about building up an application and service aspect on top of our Windows Mobile platform,” he said. “Danger is really a service application experience and we want to make sure we get that in market on a great set of phones.”

Sounds a bit like what we said immediately after the announcement:

What Microsoft is really interested in, it seems, is Danger's services - even though the Sidekick is the simplest of smart phones these days, it does a stellar job of storing its data “in the cloud” -- exactly where it belongs.

Crowing aside, Fried's post is also interesting because it addresses a concern that many had with both the Danger acquisition and the attempted Yahoo grab: these companies don't use Microsoft tech, while Microsoft almost exclusively uses Microsoft tech. Will Microsoft port everything over to their stuff? Well - eventually, but it sounds like they have their heads on straight when it comes to timelines. Microsoft is perfectly willing to run open source stuff for a time so they can focus their efforts on services that will be more immediately apparent to the end user. Good call.

Updated: We've added a ton of photos to the liveblog, after the break. Don't forget - there's real live shots of the all new Blackjack II in red inside!

We're waiting for Steve Ballmer's keynote to start. We're expecting him to announce some server-side services for Windows Mobile to compete with the Blackberry Enterprise Server stuff - device management and whatnot. But you never know - this is, after all, a conference dedicated to “Wireless IT” and “Entertainment.” Dieter wants Slingbox capability built into Windows Media Center - but that's shooting the moon.

In any case, click through and get ready to hit that refresh button. We're starting up in 10.

(all photos by Joel Martin)

9:25
We're starting in 5. The Tilt failed us for DUN for some reason, so we're stuck updating over Internet Sharing on a Touch. Oh EDGE, how I hate thee.

9:28
I don't know who thought these pre-event commercials were a good idea, but when your “texting” commercial makes me think of a Mattress Warehouse commercial, that's not a big help to your company.

9:30
You can tell we're starting because they're shining a bright, white spotlight into the crowd and playing some song with deep bass. So much for saving my vision and hearing. Here comes Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA.

We're at the “largest data event” in the world. New keynote format this year - just one speaker per day. That's a nice change, it got a little schizophrenic before. About to list some stats from CTIA's wireless survey. Let's see:

• Subscriber count: as of June 30th, 243 million wireless subscribers in the US. About 81% of the population.
• text messages, about 1 Billion per day in the US. That's a lot, baby. 28.8 were send in 2007.
• the full survey is at http://CTIA.org

...and now the Ballmer intro.

- that's new, ain't it?

9:35 Ballmer's on stage! He's looking sharp. Plans on talking about “trends” in an “increasingly mobile” world and the change from “software” to “software services.” Code for: We still want to take on Google, eh?

How have things changed in 6 years? 6 years is an eternity in the mobile space. He's showing off the Sprint Touch - retail on November 4th (we knew that). It's a “crossover” device that's good for business and also TV, video, etc. Small, lightweight, and sexy form factor. You damn skippy, Ballmer.

Talking about how WiFi was just getting popular 6 years ago, but now we got ourselves 3G and WiFi isn't as important.

User expectations have changed, too. Thin vs. Thick clients in PCs

Top, most-desired item in every emerging market: smartphones. Yep. 6 years ago, Microsoft had ONE phone, ONE model, on ONE model, in ONE country. Today: 160 models, 140 form factors, 20 million WM will be sold this year. Don't forget that when you next hear iPhone sales numbers, folks, 20 million WM phones.

9:42
Microsoft's improvement over the past 6 years - they're getting interested in cellular networks and providing services over that. Models of computing:

• desktop computing (thick clients)
• enterprise
• online (services in the cloud, talking to thin clients)
• devices. (Pictures of WM devices, Zune, XBOX 360)

Devices are #1 on Microsoft's innovation agenda. Yesterday's idea: having all these models separate, having multiple email, text, phone accounts. Will advertising work with devices the way it does with online? Maybe not so much - there needs to be a more sophisticated meld of business models (am I stretching too much to read Google digs in all these).

Mobile phones are the most popular device out there, period. How to we get it to “fully participate” in the same experiences you can get in the other computing models? That's Microsoft's target. Enterprise brought to the phone.

Oh, there's a picture of a Blackjack up there, it's red? It has a few different buttons - looks like a Blackjack II to me.

“In many countries, the phone will be the PC, for people with less money.” Talking about a “docking station” to turn your phone into a PC. Basically he's talking about opportunities for growth in the mobile space. “Think of it like a universal remote” for your business and personal phone. The phone needs to be able to cover both sides of your life.

9:48
Making fun of people who carry multiple devices, well, not mocking so much. “It strikes me as odd.” Pushing multiple form factors to meet multiple tastes. Yet despite that, the basic services and things you want to do are often the same from person to person. In other words - he's fond of the Windows Mobile busines model of licensing the OS to partners who innovate on form factors.

“Microsoft has a fairly expansive view of the mobile space.” Focused on partnership with operators, developers.

Work, Life, Platform: the themes for today.

Work

Announcement

Setting up a new device, in case you lose yours. “Self enrollment website” You can create an “enrollment request” yourself - anybody who can log into active directory can request to set up a new device.

You get the password from the site, punch it into your new phone, and it automagically enrolls into your management system. Sets up policies, password settings, the whole shebang. Fast, easy, cool.

Showing stuff on server side now. Device status, device history, blocked devices, pending enrollment, recently wiped devices. Ha - Steve Ballmer has had his wiped a buncha times for this demo.