Windows Phone, Xbox 360, and soon Windows 8, as the
FIFA Coins "heart and soul" of the presentation this evening.A clear lead-off for the evening was Windows Phone,
with over 50,000 applications in the Windows Phone Marketplace, and more than
300 a day being added. Ballmer particularly highlighted the Nokia Lumia 900 and
HTC Titan II, the lead Windows Phone devices that are just arriving on the
market in North America, as vanguards for the system.Another big focus was
Windows 8, which
"designed to work with touch... but also with a mouse and keyboard", according to Windows CMO Tami Reller. This presents Windows 8 clearly as an OS
that bridges both laptops and tablets, thanks to the
Revelation Online Imperial Coins tile-based Metro user
interface. Although Windows 8 'Metro-style' tablets are still a little further
away, since the OS has not yet shipped, Reller showcased several prototype
tablets, including a Samsung one. And the company further highlighted Windows
Store, a main store for "connecting
to as many great apps as possible", including games, across all PCs and laptops running Windows 8. The Windows Store will initially open in late
February alongside the next Beta of Windows 8, and will include many free apps
to start with. It'll be global, with free and paid apps available in 200
countries around the world. As an example, Zeptolab's Cut The Rope was demo-ed
as an app in the new Windows Store, and the search and organization functions
were also extensively
. Rolling into Xbox, Ballmer became almost insanely animated, barking: "We invest for the longterm... we're the world sales leader for the last year in
consoles. We have 66 million Xbox users and over 40 million Xbox Live
subscribers."The Microsoft CEO played up the Xbox as an entertainment hub, not
just a games machine, noting that Xbox was "still about games.. but it's
morphing, changing." And he added - "Kinect is certainly a big part of this",
since the company has shipped over at https://www.mmogo.com/
