MSFT Talks Windows 8, TV Interaction During CES Keynote

1:20 PM - January 10, 2012 by Kevin Parrish- source: Microsoft

Microsoft crammed an interview, demos of Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Xbox with Kinect into one action-packed hour.

On Monday, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association Gary Shapiro (who could easily be played by SNL's Chris Kattan in a made-for-TV movie) opened the CES 2012 Keynote Address with an explanation as to why Microsoft is pulling out of the show. Technically he called it "taking a break," and admitted that both parties agreed it was time for Microsoft to do something else, something bigger. Hence, Shapiro set the tone of the entire keynote address, a retrospective of what Microsoft has brought to the show for more than a decade, to what the company is doing now.

To be perfectly honest, this wasn't the best way for Microsoft to "go out with a bang." The company clearly wowed all of us last year when Windows was revealed to run on ARM's architecture. That same wow factor wasn't present this year. Instead, Microsoft's final keynote -- at least for now -- was presented in the form of a one-on-one interview between American Idol's Ryan Seacrest and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The entire dialogue exchange came across as a scripted, hokey, late-night infomercial, with the product presenter (Ballmer) spewing off obviously prepared answers as the "host" (Seacrest) merely did the "gosh gee golly" while holding up said products or firing off brief, scripted questions.

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