It seems like a long time ago that I was reporting on a hacker winning a prize fund after he created a driver that allowed him to use Microsofts Kinect sensor with Windows 7. Then not too long after that Microsoft announced that they were officially going to support Kinect on Windows and they released a developers kit for it.

Microsoft have since given us a few little bits of information like the fact that the Kinect sensor for Windows will be slightly smaller and better at close range than the current Kinect Sensor for Xbox 360.

And now at CES 2012, Microsoft’s last CES, Steve Ballmer has announced that Kinect for Windows will be available from February 1st and is now currently available for preorder.

Kinect has already proven to be a massive hit, and Microsoft has shipped over 18 million units since it went on sale a little over a year ago. There’s currently around 66 million Xbox users.

Kinect for Windows will ship on February 1st and be available in 12 different countries (United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom) and the suggested retail price is $249. Later on this year, Microsoft plan to offer special academic pricing (planned at US $149) for Qualified Educational Users.

It’s great that the Kinect hardware is coming to Windows,it offers a whole new level on interaction with Windows and I’m sure that developers are already hard at work creating brilliant applications to take advantage of it.

You can preorder it at Amazon

Will you be buying Kinect for Windows?

Let us know in the comments

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Microsoft’s notoriously eccentric CEO Steve Ballmer has been trying to get a bit of momentum behind Windows 8. He’s been touting new features, 4 in particular at the Dell World Conference last Friday. Ballmer was doing his best to get the 2,000 strong crowd behind Windows 8, showing them features like the new lock screen and of course the new Metro UI.

While we have seen pretty much all of these features before either at the Build conference or in the Windows 8 Developer Preview, Steve focused on 4 main features.

Lock Screen

Ballmer demonstrated the new locks screen which pops up when you’re away from the PC. It displays a “peaceful mountain view” and even though the OS is locked, you can still see prompts for incoming email messages, social network updates as well as others so you know what’s waiting for you when you return to your desktop.

Metro Start Screen

Of course, you can’t demonstrate Windows 8 without showing off the new Metro UI. The new Metro start screen has aroused a lot of complaints and concerns from Windows users. Microsoft have done their best to address these complaints, by defending the Metro UI as well as commenting that Windows 8 is still in a developer preview stage and this Metro UI is by no means that final product that we’ll see Windows 8 ship with.

Metro Live Tiles

Ballmer was also demonstrating to the audience how you can “extract” specific data from a news feed or the stock market to display in a separate tile in the Metro UI. This means that you constantly get up to date information at your fingertips in the Live Metro Tiles.

Windows Server 8

The last thing that Ballmer focused on was Windows Server 8. He highlighted the live migration feature that will let IT administrators move a virtual machine to a physical server without any interruption to the business. Even though this feature did appear in Windows Server 2008, in the new server OS it’s “simpler and smoother”.

I’m sure most of you have probably downloaded and played around with the Windows 8 developer preview already, or at the very least watched some of the coverage from the Build conference. So chances are none of these feature are really that big a surprise to you.

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Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer made a surprise appearance yesterday as Microsoft’s Build conference continued. Personally I was wondering where he was and expected him to show up at some stage, after all I would have thought it’s a pretty big deal announcing a new Windows OS to the world, so surely the man in charge should be present.

Ballmer took the stage in his usual enthusiastic fashion yesterday just after a highly technical presentation on Microsoft’s efforts in cloud computing. He announced that in the 12 hours that the Windows 8 Developer Preview had been released, it had been downloaded over 500,000 times by developers and Microsoft enthusiasts around the world. However, he did add that there is still a lot of work to be done with Windows 8 before it’s ready for the public.

He noted that while most of the core operating system is in place, the company is still working on the services that will accompany Windows 8 as well as the efforts to bring it to ARM-based systems. He was very clear to point out that Windows 8 won’t be running on “Intel or ARM”  but it will be “Intel and ARM” much to everyone’s delight.

Ballmer stressed how many new opportunities were coming up for Windows developers and Microsoft, be it in the cloud, on mobile platforms or on the traditional desktop.

Our approach to these new opportunities is centered in Windows, It’s not about doing something else. It’s about broadly re-imagining Windows.

From there he continued to talk about the companies broader efforts such as Windows Phone 7, Windows Live as well as other areas. All the while Ballmer was doing his best to rally up the developers saying how great an opportunity it is for them. He has a valid point as well, Windows will be shipped on over 350 million PC’s this year, and the chances are it will be the same next year, if not more. Nobody can compete with that, not Apple, not Android, no one.

Let’s move forward, let’s seize the opportunity for developers

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Steve Ballmer has been at the head of Microsoft for over 10 years. During that time, Microsoft has grown a lot and added three new operating systems. Still it pales in comparison to the success of Apple, with Steve Jobs at the helm. But that could change soon.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, I’m sad to say is sick, not well. Hopefully his cancer can be eliminated, but that is an iffy statement. What will happen to Apple if Jobs passes away? That is a big question. But the answer is that for the short term, probably nothing. There are many projects under construction and Steve Jobs doesn’t manage them on a day to day basis anyway.

However, Steve Jobs has been the most innovative person in the computer world now for over 20 years. There is only one other person that has had as much influence on technology as Jobs, and that was Thomas Edison. Jobs not only helped create the PC industry, he helped turn around the Telephone Industry, the Internet Industry, the Graphics industry, the Music industry, and the video industry. His impact has been universal. And the truth of the matter is, Apple needs Steve Jobs, but Steve Jobs doesn’t need Apple. He’s just there, but he could be anywhere. And that is where Steve Ballmer comes in.

Steve Ballmer

Running one of the largest (monopoly’s) companies in the world is not easy. But Ballmer with the focus on business enterprise, not the consumer enterprise,  runs a very different ship. His company has mastered many versions of software and continues to fine tune the biggest one, the operating system. In the case of Microsoft, the Ballmer-Microsoft relationship is one-to-one. Microsoft needs Ballmer and Ballmer needs Microsoft. Which is why Apple should be worried.

With Jobs’ time at Apple limited, Apple could be the subject to a buyout or takeover. Maybe not right away. But right now the only company in the horizon that could do that would be Microsoft.

Does Apple have a focus? Oddly enough one can make a claim that it does not. Sure the iPad, iPhone, and other products are successful; but Apple has been on a streak of winning the lotto with these products. Steve Jobs picks the numbers and he’s won more often than lost. But will his replacement be able to do that? I don’t know.  Will Apple be able to produce more winning technologies going through the rest of this decade? I don’t know that either. But Microsoft will continue with it’s focus, which is to build up its domination of the Computer Tech world, and this would include getting Apple under its fold. This is why Apple should fear Steve Ballmer.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to deliver the opening keynote for CES 2012 once again, and more than likely it will be full of Windows 8 news.

Over the past couple of years, Microsoft has been keynoting at CES. Over the years they’ve launched the original Xbox, Avatar Kinect and in 2009 they launched the first public beta of Windows 7. So I think it’s a pretty safe bet to assume at this stage that Windows 8 will be taking center stage at this keynote. Hopefully we will see the first public beta. A technical preview is expected to arrive in September.

Company insiders are also confirming that the keynote will be jam packed with Windows 8 goodies. Ballmer will more than likely demo a number of ARM and Intel based Windows 8 tablets that will hit the market later in 2012 when Windows 8 is generally available.

Steve Ballmer tends to get rather excited at these sort of events, so it will certainly be interesting and entertaining to watch him deliver his keynote speech.

Check out the Press Release from CES below

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Deliver Preshow Keynote Address at the 2012 International CES

Arlington, Va., July 6, 2011 – The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® announced today that Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, will deliver a preshow keynote address at the 2012 International CES®. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2012 International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, is scheduled January 10-13, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“We are pleased to welcome Microsoft back to the CES keynote stage,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “From mobile to desktop to gaming and beyond, Microsoft has a significant impact on all aspects of the consumer technology industry, and Steve Ballmer’s keynote is a great way to kick off the exciting 2012 International CES. We are excited to hear Microsoft’s latest initiatives and Ballmer’s vision for where consumer technology is heading.”

Ballmer’s preshow keynote address is slated for 6:30 p.m., Monday, January 9, in The Venetian. Microsoft has used the CES keynote stage in previous years to unveil innovative new products, including the original Xbox and Avatar Kinect.

The full line-up of 2012 International CES keynote addresses will be announced in coming months.

The 2012 International CES will feature more than 2,700 global technology companies unveiling the latest consumer technology products and services across 15 major product categories including the latest in audio, automotive electronics, connected home technologies, digital imaging, electronic gaming, entertainment/content and more. For more information on the 2012 International CES, visit CESweb.org.

About CEA
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership, including legislative advocacy, market research, technical training and education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CEA also owns and produces the International CES – The Global Stage for Innovation. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA’s industry services. Find CEA online at www.CE.org and www.Innovation-Movement.com.

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Microsoft has taken a lot of flack from users and tech sites for not delivering updates as quick as many would like, so we knew that Microsoft would be making some announcements regarding the updates and the direction of their new mobile OS at this weeks World Mobile Congress.

To briefly run through news coming out of Steve Ballmer’s keynote, future updates include:

Early March 2011

The update that many, including myself, have been waiting for has finally been given an approximate date. Steve Ballmer mentioned earlier this morning that the first Windows Phone update to include copy & paste, speed enhancements and support for CDMA handsets, will be coming in early March of this year. Many have speculated that the update has been finished, but has been held up by the carrier approval process.

Second half of 2011

“Mango” is supposedly the codename for a major update set to happen later this year, around the Fall. It’s said to include major enhancements for Windows phone including: IE9 mobile browser and HTML browser support. These updates are set for the “second half of 2011.”

Many people who have toyed with my Windows Phone have claimed how much they love the deep integration between Facebook and the OS. Now, native Twitter integration has also been announced for sometime in the second half of 2011.  

Sometime in 2011

Microsoft also unveiled some big news concerning the future of Windows Phone, which included a technical preview of cross-platform gaming between Xbox for Windows Phone and the Xbox 360 console. Details on this gaming feature were scant, but it’s expected “sometime in 2011.”

The biggest feature announced for Windows Phone is the ability to multitask with 3rd-party applications. Windows Phone looks to have adopted the familiar card interface that webOS made popular and the Blackberry Playbook now uses. Many will claim that Microsoft is stealing the idea, but the fact of the matter is that webOS has the best way to multitask and if Microsoft wants to compete with iOS and Android, they chose the best feature from another platform to copy. No specific dates for multi-tasking have been announced, just the all-to-familiar “sometime in 2011.”

To summarize, via PressPass, the announced features coming to Windows Phone in the future:

• Copy and paste functionality via first major update, coming in the next month
• Twitter integration directly into the People Hub in 2011
• Support for Office documents in the cloud in 2011
• Dramatically enhanced Web browser experience based on IE9 in 2011
• A new wave of multitasking applications in 2011
• Targeting significant volume of Nokia Windows Phones in 2012

Windows Phone seems well on its way to becoming the next major player in the mobile market, but admittedly, Steve Ballmer mentioned in his keynote that Microsoft has “..a lot of work to do.”

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Let’s face it there is only one Steve Jobs. Even Bill Gates, as smart as he is, was never as creative as Jobs; richer, sure; more domineering, yes. But, more creative? No. And that is why Apple is now considered the most valuable company in the world. Microsoft has brought a lot of innovation, to be sure. But they were always playing catch up. Why? Because they were not visionaries; good engineers and good marketing gurus, yes. Now reports are that Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO is looking to shake things up at the top with more geek types, and less management-accountant types running the show.

That is interesting because if you’ve followed some of the things that have occurred at Microsoft in the last three years, they’ve not done so well.

Start with Vista, which was a disaster. Then they had a small mobile phone device called “Kin” which they killed. Their browser, Internet Explorer, has lost market share to Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. The Windows Phone 7 has not had the traction that Microsoft was expecting, or hoping for. So what is the problem?

Bad timing, not innovative enough, too much infighting; these are some of the problems. Another one is the Microsoft has gotten too big and it wants to be in too many places. They have the Office Suite, Operating Systems, program development tools, like .Net Framework and Visual Studio. They have database programs (SQL and Access). They have document management programs (Sharepoint), Project Management and customer management programs (Project and CRM- Dynamics). They have video games (xBox) and the mobile phone device (Windows 7 Phone). And they are moving operations into the “Cloud.” Their product inventory is certainly impressive, but most of it came as a reaction to what others were doing. They weren’t the first.

So two things come to mind here; one is to look at breaking up Microsoft into a more manageable company, each with it’s own president and answerable to Steve Ballmer. The other, which is what Ballmer may actually be doing is to bring new blood to the top; someone who will have more vision and know technology to guide the direction of Microsoft. The next few weeks may show the direction that Ballmer wants to take the company

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25 years ago if you wanted to work for a computer company, IBM was the place to be. 10 years ago if you wanted to work for a computer company, Microsoft was the place to be. Now, it is Apple, Google, FaceBook, and a host of other companies. So what has happened? Essentially, smart tech people can now dictate what they want to do, where, and how much money they want to receive. It is no surprise, then, that Google and Apple have some of the most innovative tech products on the market. What has IBM done lately? It doesn’t even make PCs anymore. And what about Microsoft?

It is spending a lot of money on OS technology, the “Cloud” and the Internet. But most of it’s success has come for Windows 7 and Server 2008. It is still an OS company. Which brings me to Ballmer.

Steve Ballmer Microsoft CEO

Now in his eleventh year, is it time for him to go? Most Wall Street analysts would say no, resoundingly. He keeps the company profitable. Every quarterly statement is in the black. However, if you were to compare him to Steve Jobs, you can see that he doesn’t measure up. And that is the source of the problem.

If asked, how would you compare Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer in one word, what would it be? Jobs is a visionary. Ballmer is an accountant. Jobs sees the future in new technology. Ballmer sees the future in stock share prices. Look at what happened this week to AMD’s Meyer, who was released from his position as CEO. The stock numbers were good, but that didn’t stop the Board of Directors from letting him go. It was the lack of foresight in moving the company towards working into the mobile technology area. You can’t really say that Ballmer is not trying, but it always seems to be in follow up mode.

Source: Zdnet

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Microsoft’s numbers in its recent earnings call were outstanding – $16.20 billion in revenue means that the first quarter of fiscal 2011 is up 25 percent over last year. These numbers were derived mostly from the success of products with proven track records: Microsoft Office 2010, the latest game in the Halo franchise, and of course Windows 7.

During a speech at the Professional Developers Conference on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer extolled the virtues of the PC, calling it “the number one smart device on the planet today.” About 350 million new PCs have been purchased within the last year, and Microsoft has sold about 240 million licenses of Windows 7 since its launch just over a year ago.

In addition to traditional desktop and laptop PCs, Ballmer pointed to netbooks and upcoming Windows 7 tablets as examples of innovative devices in the PC space, devices that would continue to drive demand for Windows-powered devices as smartphones and tablets like the iPad gain steam in the marketplace.

While Microsoft’s greatest strength is still its core Windows and Office business, Ballmer did point to TV and to phones as being “very important” before talking up the brand-new Windows Phone 7, which has been garnering generally positive reviews. While he is “pumped” for the new mobile OS, he acknowledged that “there is a lot of activity” in the smartphone market from competitors like Google, Apple, and Research In Motion.

These numbers are pretty good, but there are definitely questions about Microsoft’s viability in the future. Will Windows Phone 7 be an Xbox 360-style success for Microsoft, or a Microsoft KIN-style flop? And will either Windows Phone 7, a future update to Windows 7, or even Windows 8 be more suited to compete with iOS on tablet devices? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Sources: Tom’s Hardware, eWeek

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Steve Ballmer said that Windows 8, or to be more precise, the next release of Windows, would be Microsoft’s riskiest upcoming product when interviewed at the Gartner Symposium. No additional information where given by Mr Ballmer, leaving a lot of people puzzled by the answer.

If you’d ask tech savvy users before that symposium about Microsoft’s riskiest product, it is almost guaranteed that the majority would not have picked Windows 8. They’d probably have picked Windows Phone 7, or Xbox Kinect, or any of the other products that Microsoft is working on.

But Windows 8? Now, this does not have to mean that the operating system will be bad. It could as well mean that Microsoft finally has decided to add features or make changes that they consider important, but do not know how the public will perceive them.

Could Windows 8 become a second Vista? We are not sure what Mr. Ballmer meant when he answered the question, but he surely must have known something at this point that the public does not. All we know about Windows 8 is from leaks, job postings and other informal sources.

Could it be that Microsoft plans to make a big change in Windows 8? They certainly have to do something to get users to switch to the operating system, especially after the rave reviews that Windows 7 received.

Why would anyone want to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 8, if the latter would not offer something special that the former would not? Take a look at the video below to judge for yourself, and let us know what you think he meant.

On a side note. Mr. Ballmer said the next release of Windows. Not Windows 8. This could hint at the possibility that the next Windows will not be named Windows 8, but differently. Thoughts?

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Yesterday was a huge day for both Microsoft and the mobile tech world. The Redmond company finally released their much-anticipated revamped mobile OS. We’ve been teased by device leaks and beta videos of the OS for months now and we finally get a peek at the final release of the software on actual devices.

Both Steve Ballmer and Joe Belifore took the stage to discuss and display the next generation of mobile software and hardware and I like what I’ve seen so far, although I wish some of the European WP7 models would be made available in the US as well.

Instead of fighting the rest of the world for bandwidth on Microsoft and Apple launch days, I usually just hit the key points and then go back and watch the keynote video the following day. Today is no different. For those who would like to see exactly what was said and demonstrated in Microsoft’s WP7 presentation yesterday, the video is now available on Microsoft’s website.

Click here for the presentation video or download the video from the Zune Marketplace via Microsoft Keynotes. You may also be able to grab the video on iTunes.

Image credit: Supersite for Windows, ComputerWorld

Source: Microsoft.com

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That Microsoft’s Kin phone, which was launched in May and discontinued in July, was an embarrassment to the company is not newsworthy – it’s water under the bridge. What is newsworthy is the fact that its failure cut pretty deeply into Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s bonus check this year.

According to Microsoft’s Definitive Proxy Statement for this year, Ballmer’s maximum potential bonus was 200% of his $670,000 base salary, but his actual bonus turned out to be just 100% of his base salary. Listed as reasons for this cut were the Kin’s failure,  “loss of market share in the company’s mobile phone business,” and “the need for the Company to pursue innovations to take advantage of new form factors,” meaning that Microsoft needs to find a way to succeed on a platform that isn’t a traditional desktop or laptop computer.

This puts pressure on Ballmer and on Microsoft to deliver with Windows Phone 7 in much the same way that they delivered with Windows 7, and also to deliver a viable competitor to the iPad and upcoming Android tablets.

Ballmer himself has had little but harsh words for the Kin, labeling it a distraction in a recent interview with The Seattle Times:

The No. 1 message from Kin is a message of focus. You only get so many things you can really talk about, communicate, work on with the consumer. You’ve got to be bold, you’ve got to look forward and you’ve got to stay focused. Kin was neither — with 20-20 hindsight — bold enough relative to where the market’s going, and it just defocused activity from Windows Phone.

With the reduced bonus, Ballmer’s salary for this year stands at $1.34 million – though he’s surely missing his bonus, it probably eases his pain to go to sleep on his giant pile of money.

Sources: Microsoft 2010 Proxy Statement, The Seattle Times

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In a continuing story, Ballmer told an audience of 14,000 partners, in so many words, that Microsoft wasn’t going to let another consumer market get away. Slates will be coming. The slates computer market, from Apple and various Android backers, has begun to cut into the PC market. It is one that Microsoft has ignored.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, told the Microsoft partners during the July 12 address at the Worldwide Partner Conference to expect new Windows 7 slates begin arriving before the end of this year.

2010 Microsoft Partner Conference

What is a slate computer? Slate computers are full-function Windows PC’s without a keyboard, like the iPad, or iPhone. The computer comes with a slate-like enclosure that is thin and as easy to use as possible.  Slates do not have a physical keyboard, so slates work with passive or active pens for input. The pen replaces both the mouse and joystick for navigation, and sometimes it also can actually enter text.

Microsoft, with its existing partners, including Dell, Asus, Toshiba, Samsung, and Sony, will all be presenting Windows 7 slates in the near future. They will be available at a variety of price points with a variety of form factors. Some will have keyboards; some will be touch only; some will be dockable, or be able to handle digital ink. There are “infinite” possibilities.

Form factors are undoubtedly important, but a slate is more than that. There are the apps, longer battery life, an instant on/off feature, plus a kind of app store that consumers will rave about, with not just the usual business apps, but also consumer-focused apps and games. There must be an aura that goes beyond the device. The app store is something people talk about, the apps have their own following. This is the kind of marketing, the word of mouth scenario that will get people excited about the product. It is sort of get on the cover of People magazine, and not just on the cover of PC World. That is what Microsoft needs to do.

Source: Slates

Microsoft

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It didn’t take long for skeptics to come out and wonder what Microsoft would do about the tablet PC.  Considering that they have gone back and forth on new technology, like cancelling the Kin Phone, and also killing their Courier Tablet Project.  So why should you believe Steve Ballmer when he says that Microsoft is “hardcore” about tablets?

Now we don’t know all of the workings of the decision? Was it too costly? Too backwater, without enough innovation? Take it from Steve Jobs who is one to take innovation to the next frontier. He was asked if he listened to customers. He mentioned something about Henry Ford who said something like, “If I listened to my customers, they would want a faster horse.” Hmm. Clearly, there’s listening and then there’s ignoring.

Maybe what Balmer is trying to say is that Microsoft is tired of listening to critics who are calling Microsoft a legacy company. Good tools…but no vision. So when they killed the Courier or the Kin it was because the technologies were legacy when they were released, and so enough already.

Here is what Ballmer said at the Worldwide Partners convention:

“We want to give you a great device, a consumer oriented device, but a device that fits and is manageable with today’s enterprise IT solutions … This is a terribly important area for us. It’s certainly an area where—how do I say it?—we feel all of the energy and vigor and push that we have ever felt to innovate, to drive hard, to compete. ”

That’s pretty good; but considering their track record, just in the last few months, can they be that innovative? They’ve announced some layoffs at Microsoft. Are they going to replace them with a new type of employee? One that not only is technically proficient, but likes Phillip Glass, Picasso, Vector Art, and “I am the Walrus.”

Windows 7 Slates Phones

Source:  TechFlash

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We all know how successful Windows 7 has proven to be since it was released last October and in those 8 months since it’s release, Microsoft have managed to sell an impressive 150 million copies of it.

Microsoft announced the incredible milestone on their Windows Team Blog, those 150 million sales figures, translate into approximately 7 copies of Windows 7 being sold each second! Oh the Irony! Windows 7 reached the 100 million mark only 2 months ago, so it appears sales are really beginning to pick up big time now for Microsoft.

The increase in sales likely reflects a general increase in enterprise technology spending, which means not only do Microsoft benefit from all this, but so do hardware manufacturers.

These translate into sales figures of about 25 million licenses a month, and according to Microsoft that rate is still increasing. Looking back, the previous sales figures were just 10 million a month. In March a total of 90 Million copies had been sold, and then by April 100 million had been sold.

The blog post  also states an important observation in that “between companies actively deploying and evaluating it, approximately 75 percent of enterprises are looking at Windows 7 for their organization” This was never the case with Windows Vista and it’s one of the many reasons why it never took off like Windows 7 has.

So despite Steve Jobs putting down PC’s, it seems they are still selling like hotcakes. Microsoft recently reported that 365 million PC’s are sold each year, that’s a million a day!

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In a follow up to the article written by Jason, it should also be pointed out that the fallout caused by Apple’s market valuation being bigger than Microsoft has had a lot of people commenting about the stewardship of Steve Ballmer.

As Jason correctly points out, Microsoft has seen its share of failures and successes. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, has now been at the helm for 10 years.  He has managed a large tech company as well as anyone could expect. That is, for a man without vision or the tech savvy that Bill Gates had before him. Doing well is not a small acknowledgement. How many companies would hire Ballmer, on the spot, if they had the opportunity? With a track record like his, many would.

But that is just the issue. Whose track record is it?  Could anyone run Microsoft right now? Well it looks like a lot of top rated corporate Presidents and CEO’s could if for nothing else than to keep it on the profitability road. Many shareholders like that; but most shareholders are also looking at the future, and in real terms, the future computer industry does not look at all like Ballmer sees it.

No doubt that the PC will continue to dominate the small computer market, at least at the business level. But at the home or consumer level, the PC is dead. The iPad proved that. Most home computer users are now seeing the iPad as a form of entertainment. They don’t need to have the capability of backup, and processing power to do queries or write programs. The iPad is for entertainment purposes. That’s the future.

Consider this, would you watch a television show that focused on how to build, maintain, and troubleshoot problems on the television; how to get more channels; how to increase the volume; how to increase the sharpness or clarity? Or would you watch television for comedies, dramas, documentaries, and movies and concerts. Which of these two questions favors the consumer? The answer is obvious.

The PC was a semi-entertainment vehicle for about 15 – 20 years, but that is being replaced. Gamers took the PC and made playing games on the computer fun. It made the PC an entertainment vehicle. And whether you like it or not, the download industry with all of it flaws and legal and moral issues also contributed to making the PC an entertainment vehicle. You can download movies, television shows, music, e-books, and games and many other products.  But new features, like the “App” has turned the PC on it head and Apps offer many different forms of communication and possibilities. And the Apps work on a portable and mobile device. Lugging a PC around is not necessary. Even laptops can be clumsy.

So we are at place in technology history where some can see the future, and others see, well just the bottom line.

Gates vs Ballmer

As you can see from the graph, the growth of Microsoft has changed considerably between Gates and Ballmer… Right, the conditions are different, and the business climate is different, and the competition is more frenetic. Gates did not have to contend with Google, or the iPhone, and iPad.

But Gates had vision … Ballmer just sees a bottom line. The story, as reviewed by Jason, shows up in the graph.  Not enough emphasis on the future technology, too much is on the past. Office and Windows are great programs, but this is the mainstay for Microsoft; these are their cash cows. What is coming up next? Touch is a great technology, but the market is not there yet at the level that would make this a cash cow.

The story of technology over the last 50 years, but especially over the last 20, is that tech changes very fast, (a cliche, I know). But it is also a truism that the companies that can adjust to the change will succeed. By the way, have any of you reading this bought an IBM PC lately? They started the business PC revolution you know.

See Microsoft: It’s A Wonderful Life.

Chart: Microsoft’s performance under Gates vs. Ballmer

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Looking back on the Longhorn days, it seemed that so many things were tried; different UI changes were being tossed around. Things like WinFS never even made into Vista’s final code. It was sort of the “spaghetti” scenario: throw a lot of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Only the thing that stuck was the negative perception that Vista was a huge failure.

For many of us, we saw Vista as a failure in some respects, but also as a stepping stone for the success of Windows 7. Like it or not, Windows 7 is largely the result of improvements and lessons-learned from Windows Vista. Improvements like Windows Search and the aero interface made it out of the disaster, while other improvements were made to features like the UAC because of user-complaints and Apple’s “bash Vista” commercials.

Microsoft and Ballmer aren’t fooled by Windows 7’s great success. They know what they had to go through to get here, Vista. In a meeting with fellow business leaders, Baller spoke on the Vista debacle,

“Just not executed well. Not the product itself, but we went a gap of about five, six years without a product,”…”I think back now and I think about thousands of man-hours, and it wasn’t because we were wrong-minded in thinking bad thoughts and not pushing innovation. We tried too big a task, and in the process wound up losing essentially thousands of man-hours of innovation capabilities.”

Microsoft learned quickly that general, mid-range hardware and average users weren’t ready to make such a jump and after billions of dollars spent, the lesson was all too painful. Fast forward to 2009 and now Microsoft has learned from its past mistakes. Users were ready to ditch their XP interface for something with a fresh look and practical feel. Hardware and software manufacturers had finally caught up to the requirements of the new OS and the Windows code had been streamlined to take advantage of such advancements.

What came from the mess of Longhorn/Vista was the fast, easy-to-use, more secure OS that most of us use today. Whether is was aiming too high, moving too fast or being to broad, Vista will always have its place in the tech history books as the OS that let (most) everyone down.

Hopefully, we won’t have to go through these growing pains again with Windows 8, I don’t expect to, but with any progress, usually comes a few lessons.

Source: Seattle PI: The Microsoft Blog

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On February 4th 2010,  Dick Brass, former Vice President at Microsoft, wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times about the state of the union, the union being Microsoft. It was not a pretty picture that he painted.  No innovation, too much internecine warfare, very few successful products…these were some of the complaints laid down by someone who had worked at the worlds largest software company for years.

His biggest complaint centered on the fact that the most succcessful products were conceptualized decades ago. Like the car manufacturing alternates, GM, for one, who relied on trucks and SUV’s to make the case for profits, Brass charges that true innovation has been stifled from the inside.

At this site, however, there have been numerous posts about the growth of Windows7, touch screen innovation, Browser modifications, and other technology changes, all coming from Microsoft. It is hard to reconcile the charges that Brass makes with the things we read about the Microsoft does. It does fail, take Vista, but it bounced back within less than four years with Windows 7.

The other charge that was made was that true hardware innovation has come from competitors of Microsoft. Apple, Blackberry, and other companies have run away with the IPhone market; that’s true. But Microsoft has not pursued the hardware market, not in the way that Brass would like to see.

But it is also true that many of the software innovations have been implemented by Microsoft. Touch screen technology is now coming of age because of what Windows7 is capable of doing.  But there are other software innovations that Microsoft has done.

Take the XML innovation. A small Canadian company sued Microsoft, and won, over patent infringement in the XML implementation in Office 2007. Yet it is precisely the fact that Microsoft has used XML in so many products that this technology is now more widely available. This is not to excuse or forgive Microsoft for the patent infringement problem, but it goes to show that without Microsoft, the XML technology would not be widely used.

Many will no doubt say, that Microsoft has squashed the competition unfairly or illegally, and it deserves to fail. Many of those issues have a grain of truth to them. But I’m reminded of J.D. Rockefeller in the late 1800′s when he organized, and later monopolized the oil industry. If you joined him you made money, if not he squashed your company and went belly-up. Microsoft probably did something like that in the 80′s and 90′s. Forced the competition to become partners, or Microsoft simply stole the technology if it couldn’t buy it. Undoubtedly this lead to the US government, and later European governments to go after them. But on the other hand, a lot of companies became very successful using Microsoft products. Just ask Dell, HP, and a host of other PC makers which are reporting sales notwithstanding the present day economy.

Many of the problems that Brass talks about are probably true, but that may have to do more with Steve Ballmer not being the tech guy that Bill Gates was. Ballmer is a good manager, but a visionary, no he is not. His stockholders are probably very happy with him, in the same way that the stock holders at GM or Ford were happy for decades. But look what happened there.

Brass makes the complaint over and over that innovation is lacking at Microsoft. With that I would have to agree. Innovation is the one element that must be maintained, or you are stuck in the past selling typewriters over and over again.

You can read the New York Times article Microsoft’s Creative Destruction.

.

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Lenovo, China’s biggest personal-computer maker have been at CES 2010 over the last few days and have revealed some interesting devices. Lenovo are saying that Windows 7 will boost demand for all it’s products over the next 3 years as companies and consumers adopt Microsoft’s latest OS.

Lenovo president Rory Read told Bloomberg in an interview at CES

“We’ve seen better business activity across the planet in the commercial space driven by an interest in Windows 7″

“I think this is a nice product that’s going to drive demand over the next 12, 24, 36 months.”

Read said that Windows 7 had already lifted his business in the last two months since the release of Windows 7. Lenovo’s first-half sales in the U.S. and Europe fell as corporate customers scaled back spending during the global recession. But now Lenovo is starting to see the global economy turn around and is seeing increased demand from SMB’s and Consumers. This also coincides with corporate IT spending which has been spurred on by Windows 7 also.

While at CES, Lenovo did more than just talk about Windows 7 sales, they also announced a pretty cool looking laptop come tablet. The Ideapad U1 is a laptop with a detachable screen that becomes a touchscreen tablet. While the screen is in place the machine is running Windows 7, then when the screen is removed, the tablet runs Linux.

Read announced this just after we had heard a very similar story from Microsoft’s announcements and they claimed that Windows 7 was the fastest selling operating system ever. Steve Ballmer also proudly told us that over 1 million applications supported Windows 7, more than any other previous OS. The success stories for Windows 7 just seem to keep on rolling in. Microsoft also announced a tablet of their own, the HP Slate.

Whatever about Windows 7 and all these success stories and how Windows 7 is stimulating the whole PC market. I don’t think it’s Windows 7 alone that is causing it, Microsoft got lucky with the timing of their latest OS. The Global Economy has just started to bounce back and it also happened to coincide with the release of Windows 7. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll give Windows 7 some of the credit, but not all of it.

Source:

The Register

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The BBC has today put on their website a 5 minute video interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

In the interview he takes questions from BBC viewers about Windows 7 including upgrading from XP and the problems with Vista.

On the BBC website they say…

Microsoft’s annual results for the past year are expected to show a decline, despite the small rise in PC sales which will have helped revenues from Office and Windows.

But the software giant is hoping the launch of Windows 7 will override all other news – and help it repair some of the damage caused by the Vista backlash.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer met Michelle Fleury to answer questions from BBC viewers.

You can watch the video here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8321681.stm

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Ok, I know we have seen some strange advertising and promotion efforts  ( launch parties ) from Microsoft leading up to the Windows 7 launch, but this is on a whole new level. Burger King in Japan is offering the Windows 7 Whopper burger for a limited time.

This monster of a burger features 7 patties and towers over everything else at more than 5-inches! It’s appropriately priced at 777 yen, (approx $8.55). Somehow I don’t think that after you’ve consumed this calorie monster, that you’ll be feeling as slim and light as Windows 7 is after it.

In the small print it says that only the first 30 customers will be able to avail of this Windows 7 Whopper at 777 yen. Those who miss out on the first 30 will have to fork over 1,450 yen ( $17.10 ) to indulge themselves in this delightful meal. Better be quick though as this offer only runs for…. yes you guessed it, 7 days.

Unfortunately you don’t get a Steve Ballmer plastic toy or a free copy of Windows 7 if you manage to finish it,  but you will be able to hold your head high and say that you are part of the elite club, who have managed to finish a Windows 7 Burger.

Source:

Engadget

Electronista

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The launch event for Windows 7 has just finished in New York and it’s been on a much smaller scale than previous launches. This time there was no huge stage and no big screen presentations, no rock band and no multiple speakers. Not even the customary long list of thanking the development team.

The one hour event is also shorter than previous launch events. The Vista launch was one hour, the same as this but the XP launch was a full two hour show.

There were several things about this launch that jump out to me as being unusual. The first is that this was entirely a consumer-focused event. There were no mentions of business at all. The other is the very first thing they showed off was Live Movie Maker, part of the Live Essentials Suite that doesn’t ship with Windows 7, but is instead an optional download.

This demonstrates that Microsoft clearly see Live Essentials as an important part of Windows 7. It should be, even though it’s not bundled.

One thing that really jumped out was the demonstration of Play to, this feature allows you stream media content, music, video and pictures from your Windows 7 PC to compatible devices around your home. They showed off a Dell laptop streaming 16 simultaneous video, photo and music streams, including some Hi-Def video. It was a very impressive spectacle.

The event wrapped in an Ikea’esque area with pseudo-rooms set up to demonstrate new and forthcoming Windows 7 hardware.

With the exception of some digital media and multi-touch displays, the event itself was light on content about the operating system. There was no talk about security, stability, compatibility or aero features like snap or shake. Microsoft were clearly determined to use just a few features to wow the crowd.

And in case you want to know, did anything go wrong? Sadly, no! For those of you who missed it live you should still be able to watch it here… http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windows7/default.aspx

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Long after Donald Rumsfeld has died, he will be known (sic) for one of the worst quotes ever:

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.

Now although information about Windows 8 will eventually become available, rather than the lack of information to this day about WMDs, Windows 8 details still remain sketchy.  Here are Windows 8′s Known Knowns:

1. It will be called Windows 8 and there’s even a Windows 9 in the pipeline
2. It will be released no earlier than 2012 – it is unlikely it will be released in 2011
3. It will have new networking features
4. It will include 128 bit support and will see the end of 32 bit Operating Systems
5. It won’t be Microsoft’s last client based OS - Steve Ballmer says that won’t happen for 10-20 years.

Hopefully soon we will unravel Windows 8′s known unknowns and unknown unknowns!

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On Monday I attended a small Windows 7 Launch event in London attended by around 100 people, which featured a 45 minute or so session with Steve Ballmer.

It was a bit strange seeing Steve Ballmer in the flesh for the first time.  He was a lot smaller than I expected – probably cause he looks larger than life on Youtube!  I wimped out on taking photos of the event because nobody else was taking photos apart from the guy sitting next to me who was trying to take snaps discretely on his iphone (which I thought was very brave), and I didn’t want to look like Steve’s number one fan…In Steve Ballmer’s presentation he did mention some Windows 7 facts I hadn’t come across before:

• Windows 7 was tested globally by 8m users with 700k in the UK
• In UK trials, businesses have seen savings of between £100-150 in annual support costs.  Steve Ballmer even used my old employer (I left last month-was how I managed to get an invite) as an example.  I was impressed that he knew that they were moving to Windows 7 in a 100k+ employee deployment following favourable tests, although he did neglect to mention that they were moving from XP to Windows 7 after deciding to skip Windows Vista…
• That despite the poor perception that Windows Vista had, it’s a myth that people didn’t upgrade  -the same number of users moved from XP–>Vista as moved from windows 95–>XP

In the Q&A session Steve Ballmer expressed his hopes that users would buy new PCs with Windows 7 rather than buying new machines running XP or Vista.  Steve said that by making XP ‘End of life’ from a support perspective, Microsoft hoped this would move new PC customers upwards to Windows 7.

“We hope that in the first three to six months we will have made the case that [new PCs] should come with Windows 7. If customers have been doing testing with Vista, that should make it easier to move. You’ll see us work hard to make Windows 7 the default choice on new PCs, whether you decide to move your entire installed base or not,” he said.

One question was fielded asking whether Windows 7 would be Microsoft’s last operating system.  Steve Ballmer said no, as the Microsoft teams are already working on Windows 8 and Windows 9, and that client OSs are here to stay for at least 10 years:

“After Vista, many in the media said that it’d be the last Windows release ever, but there’s still a lot of work to do. We don’t have voice and gesture recognition built in, and you can’t have everything seamlessly managed from the cloud yet,” he said.

Steve Ballmer also pointed to the fact that other companies are working hard on OSs, so there was still plenty of work to be done.  He poked fun at Google a couple of times:

“Google have two [OS] in Chrome and Android…I’m not sure why they are building two “

I’m glad I attended as it was quite refreshing to see Steve Ballmer speak quite candidly about the plans for Windows 7, but also because (as I’d hoped!) all attendees got a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate to take home with them.

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If you’ve been one of the lucky ones chosen by Microsoft to host a Windows 7 Launch Party, aside from the Windows 7 Napkins and Balloons, you will now have something else to show off at your party. You will receive a limited “Steve Ballmer” edition of Windows 7! Basically its Windows 7 Ultimate, but this special edition of Windows 7 will sport new fancy looking packaging and have Steve Ballmer’s signature on it.

This Ballmer edition of Windows 7 was discovered after some windows enthusiast complained directly to Ballmer because they weren’t eligible to host a Windows 7 Launch Party because of their location. Feeling their dismay at being unable to host one of these exclusive Windows 7 Parties, Ballmer decided to send them a party kit right away before any of the other party hosts would receive them. In it the Windows 7 Ultimate Ballmer Edition was found (See below)

The Ballmer Edition Of Windows 7 - Courtesy of M3 Sweatt

Microsoft did something similar for the Windows Vista launch except there was no launch party’s planned. The limited edition of Windows Vista Ultimate with Bill Gates signature was sold on Amazon.

The Windows Vista Bill Gates Edition Courtesy - Cnet

Microsoft haven’t said if they will even be offering this “Ballmer Edition” Of Windows 7 for sale to the public or where it will be sold. So for now only those of you who are lucky enough to be hosting a Windows 7 Launch party will be getting this ” Steve Ballmer ” edition Of Windows 7 Ultimate.

Source:

Cnet

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Living in the UK, I don’t get many opportunities to go to big launch events.  Microsoft are hosting the UK Technical Launch at Wembley Stadium on the 6th October.  Invitations to the Windows 7 Efficiency Event are free and at the event Microsoft will be running through the new features in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

I sent an email to my UK Microsoft contact and I was amazed to get an invite for a smaller Windows 7 Launch Event at Microsoft’s main London offices on the 5th October, which will feature Steve Ballmer:

I’m glad that my smoozing of my Microsoft contact for the last 8 months is finally starting to pay off!  Hopefully I will get a free copy of Windows Ultimate…

I will be taking my camera along so expect some shots from the event.  It will be interesting to hear the Windows 7 pitch for businesses as I will be attending not as Everton Blair, but officially on behalf of my firm (>100k employees).

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In 2007, Microsoft launched Windows Vista and Office 2007 in a big ceremony that was held in New York on January 30th. With Windows 7 a couple of weeks away from its general availability (where it’ll hit store shelves on 22nd of October), some people are wondering whether or not Microsoft is going to have another big launch event for Windows 7. However, Microsoft has its lips sealed about any launch details. Luckily, Mary-Jo Foley has mentioned today in a blog post that Microsoft has sent invitations to several media members and bloggers to attend the launching of its latest OS in New York City:

We also wanted to let you know that you will be receiving an invitation to a Microsoft event in NYC on October 22nd to celebrate the availability and launch of Windows 7. With Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaking and exciting new hardware from our partners, we’re looking forward to sharing Windows 7 with the world.

It’s also worth mentioning again that Microsoft will also sponsor a business tour in the USA that runs from September 28th and November 4th where it will discuss: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010. What’s interesting is that many will attend just to get ahold of a free copy of Windows 7 Professional that Microsoft will give out!
Windows Vista’s launch event featured aerial dancers forming the Windows Vista and Office 2007 logos. What do you expect in Windows 7′s launch event and are you going to attend it?

Sources: Neowin and Mary Jo Foley: “All About Microsoft”

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We all knew that the Windows 7 Starter edition would be limited to low-end computer systems only. It was also known that Microsoft would only sell Windows 7 Starter directly to OEM manufacturers such as Dell, Acer, HP or Toshiba and not to consumers or businesses. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has confirmed these Windows 7 Starter restrictions during Microsoft’s annual financial analyst day on July 30. While Ballmer did not go into specifics he confirmed that the Starter edition of Windows 7 would only be allowed to be installed on systems with super-small screens running certain processors.

In May tech news site Tech ARP published an (unconfirmed) document that detailed the hardware limitations. According to that document Windows 7 Starter editions are allowed on systems with a maximum screens size of 10.2″, 1 Gigabyte or less of computer memory, a hard drive with 250 Gigabytes or less or an SSD drive with 64 Gigabytes or less and single core processors that do not exceed 2 GHz and that have a CPU thermal design power that is less than or equal to 15 W.

Ballmer did not remain as closed lipped when it came to the motivation behind the decision to limit the Windows 7 Starter Edition.

Ballmer was frank with analysts about Microsoft’s rationale for setting Starter’s limitations. “We want people to be able to get the advantages of lightweight performance and be able to spend more money with us, with Intel, with HP, with Dell and with many, many others,” he said.

Microsoft is trying to selling higher priced versions of Windows 7 to OEMs by limiting the lower priced Windows 7 Started edition severely in order to rectify their Windows XP Home pricing strategy.

Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft made a mistake pricing licenses of Windows XP Home that it’s been selling only to netbook makers since April 2008. “[Windows revenues are] down primarily because we did a program this year to cut prices in emerging markets with a theory that the lower price would lead to higher attach and higher total revenue,” Ballmer said.

“The theory was wrong. It’s not that it was untested, but it turns out the theory was wrong, and you will see us address the theory in the Windows 7 time frame. We’re going to readjust those prices north, so to say, and I think with our Windows 7 SKU lineup, we also have a great chance to do some up-sell … to Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home….”

Windows XP Home will continue to be offered to OEMs for a period of 12 months after the launch of Windows 7. It will be interesting to see how OEMs and customers react in this time.

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With speculation that Windows 7 will launch this October, which is the date I’ve believed since the outset, will you be watching the launch keynote event and what type of event will it be?

It’s usually an entertaining two hour romp a bit like the Eurovision song contest here in Europe.  You’re waiting for the disasters and the bits that don’t work, and watching over-excited Microsoft employees getting all worked up over a tiny little feature that’s hard to get worked up over anyway.  It’s usually a laugh.

The difference this time is that we won’t have Bill Gates.  It will instead be Steve Ballmer bellowing at the crowd like Brian Blessed addressing his hawkmen in Flash Gordon.  What will the the Ballman’s bellowing boom bring to the mix?

So will you be watching the keynote and what type of event do you think it will be?

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If you have missed yesterday’s CES 2009 keynote by Steve Ballmer you can now watch the full keynote as a recording here at Windows 7 News.

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The first 64-bit version of Windows 7 has been apparently leaked as signs of it begin to appear on various torrent websites. The full file name is said to be 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO with a file size of 3.15 Gigabytes.

The CES 2009 keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is just around the corner and it does not really make much sense to download the leaked release as the official public beta version will also be released in the coming days.

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The CES 2009 conference is less than a week away and the world is looking forward to Steve Ballmer’s keynote which is expected to reveal new information about Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 7. Many news sites assume that Steve Ballmer will announce the public release of the Windows 7 Beta in his keynote. While that is not totally clear yet it is generally assumed that the Windows 7 Beta will be released in the beginning of January.

Long posted information about the live streams of the keynote on his Windows 7 blog. It will begin on Wednesday January 7 at 6.30pm PST and three live streams can be accessed to view the keynote from anywhere on the globe:

100K CEO 2009 Live Stream
300K CEO 2009 Live Stream
750K CEO 2009 Live Stream

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Tomorrow is Liberation Day. At least in Down Under where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Senior Director Gianpaolo Carraro and Microsoft Director Tim Sneath speak on a three hour event beginning 3:30pm. Tim Sneath has the last 40 minutes of the event all for himself and will “show you how technologies like Windows 7, Live Mesh, WPF and Silverlight liberate you to build the applications you dream of”. The interesting thing about this event is that Microsoft will again speak about Windows 7 publically and that the event is streamed live this time.

Make sure to check in at 3:30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time to watch the full keynote. If you are only interested in Windows 7 you might want to tune in at 5.40pm when Tim’s session begins.

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Companies who have not yet made the switch to Windows Vista are in an awkward position. Windows 7 is supposed to come out in late 2009 which would mean that a company skipping Windows Vista would save lots of money when switching right to Windows 7. The costs for testing and deploying Windows Vista and training the staff would fall away and could be added to the budget of the Windows 7 deployment a year later. There are however a few reasons why it might make sense under certain circumstances to switch to Windows Vista instead of waiting for Windows 7.

Companies and businesses not running Windows Vista yet are most likely running a previous version of the Windows operating system. The majority will still run Windows XP. The problem with Windows XP is that the mainstream support phase ends in 2008 and that the extended support phase will begin in 2009. Analysts like Gartner predict that vendor support for Windows XP will begin to wane in the beginning of 2010 which might not be a problem for a company that wants to deploy Windows 7 if the release will be indeed in 2009. Most companies however will not migrate to a new operating system in the first months of its release. The deployment phase usually begins 6-12 months after the initial release. It might be safe to wait on the other hand if no hardware purchases are planned in 2009 / 2010 and that the next hardware purchase and replacement phase begins in 2011 or later.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer voiced his opinion about the success of Windows Vista at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando and gave a few insights about the upcoming Microsoft operating system. He mentioned that Windows 7 would be a major release because Microsoft put more work into it than a minor release would usually receive and that Windows 7 would be Windows Vista but a lot better. The second statement confirms the statements Microsoft made earlier that Windows 7 would have similar hardware requirements as Windows Vista. It could be interpreted that Windows 7 would be indeed more like Windows Vista 2 than a separate major release which Ballmer tried to rebut by pointing out that Windows 7 would be a major release.

Ballmer was also asked why companies should upgrade to Windows Vista instead of waiting for Windows 7. The answer was a diplomatic one, stating that companies could wait if they wanted but that he personally would deploy Windows Vista.

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Microsoft has once again confirmed that Windows 7 is right on track and that they are still aiming for a release date that comes close to three years after the deployment of Windows Vista. Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business Group, said on Thursday that Windows 7 remains on track according to an article published over at Cnet.

The article was updated lated on with a statement made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who did not reveal any new – and exciting – details about the upcoming Microsoft operating system. He did mention however that Windows 7 will look great and that it will be quite compatible which once again confirms that Microsoft will not implement any revolutionary changes in Windows 7.

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Long Zheng speculates in an article on his website I started something that Microsoft will officially present Windows 7 at the The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference hosted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher on May 27.

Bill Gates and Steve Balmer will both be present at the conference which has seen its share of important Microsoft announcements in previous years. The interesting question will be how Windows 7 will be shown on the conference. Will it be a theoretical approach where Bill and Steve talk about Windows 7 and what they want to achieve with this new operating system or will they even show one of the Milestone releases of Windows 7.

In addition to just discussing their ideas and vision, it’s rumored the event will actually involve a demonstration of Windows 7 in some fashion. Whether or not we’ll actually see a live build of Windows 7 or purely a technology demo of a specific feature remains a mystery, but it’s sure exciting.

It would definitely be interesting if they would demonstrate an early Windows 7 version to the public.

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