After being quite underwhelmed by the CES 2011 Microsoft Press Event held Wednesday afternoon, I was highly anticipating hearing what CEO Steve Ballmer had to say in his keynote address that evening. Unfortunately, at the end of it, I was left unimpressed and unfulfilled by what Ballmer and his team had presented. While scanning articles touting industry analysts’ opinions the next day, I got the distinct impression that many felt the same way I had.
Michael Cherry, an analyst for Directions on Microsoft, expressed his confusion to Computer World on Wednesday.
"I'm baffled, I just don't get what they get from this," Cherry lamented about the focus on ARM chips. "This is the Consumer Electronics Show, right? It's not COMDEX, and it's not the Professional Developers Conference," he added, referring to other trade shows that are geared more toward industry professionals than consumers.
"I don't think people go into a store and say, 'Give me a tablet that runs Windows.' They don't say, 'Give me a tablet that runs on an Intel or an ARM processor,' Cherry added. "I think they go in and say, 'Give me a portable device that turns on instantly and has interesting apps to read books, browse the Web, check my e-mail."
Others criticized the fact that Microsoft hasn’t created a specialized tablet-version of Windows 7 to use on what seems to be this year’s most popular device at CES.
“Microsoft is choosing the wrong tool for the job --- Windows hasn't been designed for tablets, and so it shouldn't be the company's tablet operating system,” wrote Preston Galla, blogger for Computer World. “Windows is designed for larger screens, heavier hardware, and with an interface driven by mouse clicks, not touch.”
Jason Maynard, a Wall Street analyst for Wells Fargo, expressed concern about the lack of new mobile devices shown during the events. “Sometimes what’s not said matters more than what is said,” Maynard expressed in a note after the speech. “We thought we might hear about some new tablets … but it didn’t go that route.”
Many of us also thought we might hear about Microsoft TV, but that too was notably missing from both of the corporation’s presentations.
And, finally, the lack of Windows Phone 7 announcements was a letdown for some. One mobile platform developer I spoke to after Ballmer’s keynote was hoping to hear more about future plans for the devices that didn’t involve gaming.
“Besides the app count, I’d like to have heard more about device sales since launch and what’s in the future for the platform outside of apps. They seemed very vague,” he said, referring to presentations by Ballmer and Windows Phone 7 team member Liz Sloan. “It felt like too much focus was on games.”
Israel Hernandez, analyst with Barclays Capital, shared the same sentiment about the lack of focus on Windows Phone 7 sales numbers.
“The lack of disclosure on sales volumes suggests to us internal disappointment,” he told the Wall Street Journal, though he added it was a good sign that the company seemed pleased with good customer-satisfaction ratings thus far.
The optimist in me is hoping that Ballmer and company has some more surprises in store during the rest of the show, but I have a nagging feeling that it just won’t happen. Hopefully something good comes out over the next two days to prove me wrong. If not, Microsoft has a long year ahead before they get another chance to wow the masses at CES 2012.
