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3GSM 2006 coverage : keynote session of Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft February 15, 2006 [General] | By Edward J. R. "I love mobile industry and I love mobile operators" - Steve Ballmer said at his keynote session, but he didn't say "I love mobile phones" though... Anyway: this is the first time when CEO of Microsoft is coming to 3GSM - previously the top managers from Microsoft at 3GSM shows were managers from Mobile and Embedded Division of Microsoft... In this story we provide photo review of this keynote session (we were located just 5 meters away from Steve Ballmer - together with paparazzi):
... and we provide full audio recording of this keynote session too! Read on! During the keynote session there was on stage a "table with mobile phones":
... which were (from the left to right and top to bottom): Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox T830, g-smart (classic, with slide out keypad), i-mate SP5m, i-mate JAMin, Vodafone VPA IV (HTC Universal), Sprint PPC6700 (HTC Apache), g-smart i (without slide out keypad), O2 Xda Atom, HTC Apache from Verizon Wireless, Cingular 2125, i-mate K-JAM, Palm Treo 700w, Motorola Q, T-Mobile MDA Vario, T-Mobile SDA II Music, Samsung i730 (from Verizon Wireless), HTC Wizard from Vodafone, HTC Tornado from Vodafone. Steve Ballmer was talking enthusiastically about mobility:
Then Steve Ballmer invited Suzan DelBene who is marketing Vice President and second after Pieter Knook, top manager at Mobile and Embedded Division. She was invited to present some handsets from the above mentioned table:
The handsets that she presented were not standing but lying on the table, and these handsets were Samsung i320 (the new Pocket PC phone with QWERTY keyboard):
... and also HP iPaq 6915, Asus P305 and i-mate Smartflip (HTC Star Trek). Furthermore Steve Ballmer was talking about personal / versus professional life and various Microsoft's offerings:
The Office Communicator Mobile was introduced (it has also Voice over IP feature), Windows Live for Mobile and interestingly it was mentioned that in Windows Vista users will be able to sync more than one device at a time (nowadays only one device at a time can sync with ActiveSync):
Then Steve Ballmer welcomed Dave Karle, who presented a demo of some of the new applications:
Then short video recording of Richard Branson - a multi-millionaire from UK who owns Virgin Mobile (a virtual mobile network operator) was presented:
Richard Branson told about cooperation regarding mobile TV and new Windows Mobile handset (for UK) for mobile TV (here: Cartoon Network on the display):
Then Steve Ballmer was talking about various (business) partnership opportunities with Microsoft:
... and interestingly also "Nokia" and "Sony Ericsson" occured in the presentation - as license takers of wireless ActiveSync:
Conclusion: it is nice to see that CEO of Microsoft at last also expresses some interest in mobile phone industry. Windows Mobile still is just a small part of overall Micorsoft's strategy, also in mobile phone industry - due to licensing deals and due to Microsoft offering also other solutions than Windows Mobile - but obviously to achieve the most complete functionalities and the most features, users will need to purchase Windows Mobile, rather than Symbian. To listen to the full audio recording of this keynote session click here.
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