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     Microsoft opens CES without much-hyped tablet, highlights past
     successes

     

By John D. Sutter, CNN
     

January 7, 2010 5:33 a.m. EST
     
     Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave Thursday's keynote address at the
     Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

     STORY HIGHLIGHTS

     Microsoft did not announce its own tablet-style computer as
     previously expected Project Natal, Microsoft's body-sensing gaming
     system will be available this holiday season Natal uses cameras to
     sense body movements, replicate them on screen

     Follow CNN's technology coverage on Twitter: @cnntech.

     Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer opened up
     the largest consumer technology trade show in the world with a
     tone that was both reflective and energized, but without living up
     to much -- if any -- of the anticipation that preceded the speech.
     Some tech insiders had expected Microsoft to use its keynote slot
     Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show to debut a tablet-sized
     computer, a much-hyped category of electronics that is sized
     between mobile phones and laptops and usually has a touch-sensitive screen.


     Apple, the company's chief rival, is rumored to be announcing a
     tablet later in January.

     While Ballmer did briefly show off tablet-sized computers that run
     on Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, he did not announce a
     Microsoft tablet computer; nor did he dazzle the technophile crowd
     with many new products or announcements.

     Instead, Ballmer chose largely to highlight the company's past
     successes, like Windows 7, the Xbox 360, its Zune HD portable
     music player and the search engine Bing. Thirty-nine million Xbox
     360s have been sold worldwide, and Bing has gained 11 million new
     users in recent months, he said.

     He also mused on the history of technology and said he is going to
     be headstrong about the fact that the future will be just as
     innovative and inspiring as the past.

     Noting that the global middle class -- Microsoft's customer base
     -- is expected to jump from 1 billion to 4 billion people in
     coming decades, Ballmer said, "I'm bullish, and we can all be
     bullish in terms of the long-term prospects of our industry."
     A substantial portion of the keynote focused on entertainment and
     gaming, and some news did come out of that part of the talk.

     Video: TV of the future Video: 3D TV's, shows are coming soon

     Video: Fly a drone with a phone

     RELATED TOPICS

     Microsoft Xbox 360

     International Consumer Electronics Show
     Consumer Electronics

     Microsoft announced Project Natal, a new controller-free video
     gaming system, which reads a players body movements with cameras
     and mimics them with avatars on screen, will be available for
     purchase by the holiday season this year.

     The company had demonstrated the system at another trade show last
     year, but had not set a release date until Wednesday. It is still
     unclear how much the system will cost, although Microsoft says
     Natal add-ons will work with its existing Xbox 360 gaming console.
     Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president for entertainment and devices,
     also announced a number of new games for the Xbox, including a new
     edition of the popular game Halo, which is due out in the spring.
     "What Star Wars is to film and what Harry Potter is to fantasy
     books, Halo is to the gaming industry," he said.
     Ballmer and Windows senior product manager Ryan Asdourian touted
     the success of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, which has
     won favorable reviews since it was released last year. Ballmer
     said the operating system has helped buoy PC sales in the down
     economy.

     Asdourian said the beauty of PCs is that there are so many to
     choose from -- from desktops to netbooks, notebooks and now
     tablets.

     "The great part about being a PC?" he asked. "You can find one
     that matches your style, your needs, and of course, your budget."
     Ballmer and Asdourian briefly showed off Windows-running tablet
     computers from HP, Pegatron and Asus. Ballmer referred to them by
     another name: "slate PCs."

     Some attendees said they left the speech disappointed.

     "We were really bored by it," said Paul Miller, an editor at a
     gadget-focused blog called Engadget. "This is CES, and you're
     looking for what's new.

     "For them to show us a bunch of products and functions that we'd
     already seen, it just seemed like a waste of time."

     Ben Parr, co-editor of the social media and tech blog Mashable,
     said he had expected more from Microsoft's keynote, but that the
     company did show off the fact that it had a good year in 2009.

     "It's still all very cool and Ballmer and company did a good job
     reminding us what sorts of things we'll expect in 2010," he said.

     At times in the keynote, Ballmer ruminated on the power technology
     has to transform peoples' lives. He mentioned several Microsoft
     research projects, including those to make health care data more
     useful for patients, to help researchers use software to find a
     vaccine for HIV/AIDS and to make homes more energy efficient.

     "All of us here tonight have a real responsibility to use
     technology for the betterment of the society and the betterment of
     the planet," Ballmer said in the address.

     Dylan Tweney, senior editor at Wired, said Microsoft doesn't get
     enough credit for its lofty and often-futuristic research goals.
     The problem, he said, as that these concepts don't always
     translate into better experiences for consumers.

     He also said Apple's rumored announcement of a tablet computer was
     hanging over Microsoft's talk. "Apple has been very smart in
     making inroads into home entertainment," he said, "and you could
     sort of see how somebody like Microsoft might look at the prospect
     of an Apple tablet and be very nervous."


    http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/07/ces.microsoft/index.html


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※ 來源: DISP BBS (http://disp.twbbs.org)
※ 作者: ott  來自: 118.166.12.76  時間: 2010-01-08 11:58:45