Enterprise Mobility: Ballmer Talks 8 Million Kinect Sales, Windows Phone 7, Avatars

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used his Jan. 5 keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show to focus on Xbox 360's hands-free Kinect controller, Windows Phone 7 devices and how the next version of Windows will support ARM chip architecture. ARM chip designs dominate much of the burgeoning mobile market, where Microsoft rivals such as Google and Apple have already made substantial inroads with their own lightweight operating systems. Ballmer also showed off Surface 2, the next version of Microsoft's table-sized touch-screen tablet. As expected, Ballmer spent much of his speech pointing out what he termed Microsoft's successes: 8 million Kinect sales in the device's first 60 days, 5,500 apps in Windows Phone's applications storefront and an upcoming line of Windows 7 laptops that incorporate technologies like touch screens. Although he offered no sales numbers for Windows Phone 7, he reiterated that Microsoft intends to "aggressively" push the smartphone platform in coming months, when it appears on Verizon and Sprint in addition to GSM-based networks such as AT&T.