back to article CES headman: 'Microsoft not gone, just on pause'

When Microsoft said in December that this year's Consumer Electronics show would be its last, it failed to convince the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, the organization that produces CES. "I would be shocked if a Microsoft leader did not return to this stage again in the next few years," said the CEA …

COMMENTS

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  1. Giles Jones Gold badge

    What consumer electronics does Microsoft have to demonstrate anyway? Zune is dead, they don't make phones and they're not going to take to the stage to go on about the 6 year old XBox 360.

  2. JDX Gold badge

    Kinect and some nice input devices. But mice and keyboards are hardly keynote material ;)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great Innovations?

    I guess that's their reason for pulling out. They do not have any great innovations to show and are not planning to have any in the future. That's not necessary for them anyway, since with vendor lock-in they can pretty much keep going with all their old junk.

    1. Bronek Kozicki
      Paris Hilton

      yes,

      ... I thought the same, but then I remembered Kinect. It might be that, despite great commercial success and massive advertising budgets, projects such as this aren't perceived internally in Microsoft as innovations worth speaking about. Perhaps it's something to do with internal politics.

      Paris, just because.

  4. ColonelClaw
    Gimp

    Hmmm

    "...have taken to the stage to tell the world about Microsoft's next great innovations."

    There's something not quite right about this sentence.

  5. Daniel 1

    US's revered founding fathers

    A fine collection of slave-owners, human-traffickers, and land speculators, to be compared to, I'm sure.

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Completely unfair

      Not all of the Founding Fathers were slaveowners. Some were brutal capitalist industrialists. who only wanted the poor folks around them to fight a little war so they could take over the government and increase their commercial influence. Quite nearly saints, really.

      1. Jean-Luc
        Flame

        @Completely unfair

        Tsssk tsssk.

        One would almost think, by reading those remarks about the Holy Founding Fathers and Their Eternal Wisdom That Shall Resonate Through The Ages And From Sarah Palin's Sultry Lips (TM), that some of y'all Brits are still all sore about being booted out by your colony, 200+ yrs later.

        Time to grow a pair, dudettes ;-)

        p.s. That said, I can think of few things more butt-kissing than this kind of intro. esp to Ballmer.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Gimp

    nauseating

    what cringing suck-up

  7. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    Pfffrttttt!! Muahaha!!!

    "Content from News Corporation – Fox broadcast programming, The Wall Street Journal .... "

    Hey kid, ready to listen to your warmongering govnmt-propaganda propelling XBox after a game of Halo?

    The founding fathers, indeed.

  8. crb3

    That, and...

    "since with vendor lock-in they can pretty much keep going with all their old junk."

    That, and the trollbooths they're putting up on other people's trade-routes (Android).

  9. Mikel
    Devil

    Howto demo

    There was a good 20-minute long presentation about what the Metro interface is, and how to use it. The need for which, if you think about it, explains a lot.

  10. Asgard
    Windows

    Can't say I will miss Ballmer but...

    It seems very strange (and short sighted) that any company would want to give up such a huge and prestigious PR opportunity as giving the keynote speech at such a big event as CES. But then I guess Microsoft cannot easily talk about the future (without reporters asking awkward questions that make Microsoft look bad) such as the growth potential of new technology, when Microsoft isn't leading in these new markets such as mobile.

    But still, I never thought I would see the day when Microsoft is so visibly sidelined.

    1. Charles Manning

      Why...

      To maul the old saying: "Better to be quiet and be thought to be boring and lame than open your mouth and prove it!"

      While many companies and CEOs could turn the opportunity of a keynote into a huge benefit, MS and Ballmer just use it to make themselves look worse.

      Microsoft withdrew. It has taken them a few years to get their egos in check enough to realise that opening their mouths at CES makes things worse, not better. Bill Gates could screw up a bit on stage and get away with it because he's Bill. Ballmer gets no such credit.

  11. TheOtherHobbbes
    Thumb Up

    MS drops CES

    ...and joint-ventures with Muppets.

    Perfect. :)

  12. Sil

    Microsoft had nothing new to show so the keynote was boring.

    It was even embarassing: Seacrest's lack of talent as a moderator, Ballmer's fake joviality, and windows phone / windows 8 (which I think are exciting products) presentations that fought for the price of most boring presentation ever.

    For the last keynote I think they should have tried to make us dream with even more time to present the new PCs/Ultrabooks/tablets and show a few of the exciting Microsoft Research projects.

  13. Rambo 1

    Dance Ballmer, DANCE!!

    It would not have been a crashing bore if Ballmer busted out those smooth dance moves of his.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc

    C'mon Steve, give the people what they really want!

  14. bigfoot780

    chair

    Give him a chair. That would be more intresting.

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