Ballmer Hosting Press Conference at Mobile World Congress, Duh

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

So often in the gadget business, you know something without actually “knowing.” For example, we’ve known Windows Mobile 7 was coming for quite a while, though it is only now being confirmed. Likewise, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer making some noise at Mobile World Congress in regards to Windows Phone (potentially Windows Mobile 7) was mentioned in passing at CES (and a couple other times since then); but now it’s officially official.

According to Microsoft’s News Center (opens in new tab), Steve Ballmer will be hosting a press conference to discuss Windows Phone at MWC. Slated for Feb. 15 -- that's next Monday -- the press conference will be streaming live and viewable from Microsoft’s Windows Phone page (opens in new tab). After the conclusion of the press conference, an on demand version will be made available.

With as rampant as the speculation has become over WM7 and what it will or will not include, we’re not going to read much into the fact that this is only a press conference instead of a full-blown keynote. We’ll be there Monday to watch it go down.

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson

Phil is the father of two beautiful girls and is the Dad behind Modern Dad. Before that he spent seven years at the helm of Android Central. Before that he spent a decade in a newsroom of a two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist newspaper. Before that — well, we don't talk much about those days. Subscribe to the Modern Dad newsletter!

15 Comments
  • Come on two versions. I don't want to sync through Zune. If I wanted an iPhone I'd buy one.
  • pff.. ballmer. guy laughed at the iphone when it first came out because it didnt have a keyboard. now that single phone out sells his whole operating system and, if rumors are true, he's trying to make an iphone...izunephone???
  • In the past Motorola RAZR sold even more phones than the iPhone.
  • Actually the first iphone sold decently but not stratospherically well: it was very expensive, unsubsidized, lacked 3G, lacked apps. It wasnt until the 2nd generation and more so in the 3rd generation that marketshare exceeded that of WM. So clumping all 3 generations into 1 and presenting it as one phone isnt exactly honest.
  • John nailed it. Ballmer had valid criticisms of the iPhone when it first came out. He couldn't picture it being a runaway success without 3rd party apps, 3g etc. It really was only until they began introducing these features and more that they began progressing without having to advertise it as an iPod [Leveraging that monopoly]. The iPhone owes it's success to including what were before deemed "missing" features.
  • Are you kidding me? What is with you guys, you think you can just make stuff up whenever you want to. It's disgusting. Here's what Steve Ballmer had to say about the iPhone upon it's release. "The iPhone has no hope of gaining a true foothold in the cellphone marketplace." "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item." "We wouldn't define our phone experience just by music. A phone is really a general purpose device," he summarized. "You want to make telephone calls, you want to get and receive messages, text, e-mail, whatever your preference is." "...and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine." Please, explain to me how you can claim that Steve Ballmer has a single shred of credibility. This guy has repeatedly tried to discredit Apple, to literally laugh at Apple's products, to make Apple look downright retarded, then runs and copies every move they make. I just don't get how you people can live in such a state of denial. And don't sit there and call me a Microsoft hater, I use, and love, a shite ton of their products. But to try and say that Ballmer has ever had a valid criticism about Apple, ESPECIALLY the iPhone, is in itself laughable.
  • This is a load of misinformation, in it's first quarter of sales, the iPhone had already climbed past Microsoft's entire lineup of Windows Mobile smartphone lineup. The iPhone had a 27% share of the 3Q market for all smartphones, second only to Blackberry at the time. These figures were compiled by Canalys and published by Symbian, which were also supported by NPD.
  • My above post was supposed to be a reply to John's post about the iPhone not "technically" outselling WM.
  • usually i dont agree with saggyballs but he nailed it here. its so pathetic when people get all defensive about how good the iphone is doing. face it. its one phone(or three if you want to get overly technical) that outsold an entire operating system which has been around for years before. let me put this into perspective. it would be like one car outselling all v8 engines combined. that is saying something!! you cant deny it! and there is a good reason for these results. its just a better device than anything out there and for the past 3-4 years it has been. because it actually WORKS. i dont care what you "think" these are the facts and i love it because it makes everyone else work 10 times harder for our money
  • Thank you...I think?
  • perhaps, but have they ever gone all out with sat feeds and all? It almost seems like.. sure, it will be minor because its a presser rather than a keynote, but it could be big because of the consecutive analyst meetings during and after, but then it could be minor because MS has been stressing MIX as the venue and time, but it could be major because there's been some suspicious movements withing MS persononell acros the globe leading one to believe that something big is abrewing, but minor because they are only announcing SB's presence today, but major because, maybe, in order to keep a lid on things, they couldn't set up fast enough for a keynote... hmmm... Yeah, I think it will be good, but evolutionary. I'm sure most people won't be satisfied even if MS finds a way to cure cancer via their mobile offerings. It's just so much more fun to be negative against MS. :0)
  • After the nerf job Microsoft did with my Zune subscription. I'm pretty sure I'll never buy another Zune. We have 5 Zunes in our household and we lost 10 - 20 percent of the subscription music (gone like vaporware) on them. Boo
  • That picture of him is awesome omg :0D I still believe it is all going to be awesome! MS will make Windows Phone 7/WM7 OS the way the MAINSTREAM wants it. They will make some hard business people mad, but will gain many, many other people. I myself like that WM has more to offer regarding the professional/business side, but I care more about the other side TBH. Let's just hope for the best, I am done with being negative about MS/WM etc. Xbox 360 = WIN/ WINDOWS 7 = WIN/ ZUNE = SOUNDS LIKE A WIN? Never used it so I am not going to say anything about it.
  • with so many competing mobile initiatives running concurrently, it's amazing MSFT has anything coming out on winmo at all.
  • God made man in likeness of himself. Why shouldn't CEOs do the same for cell phone operating systems? Maybe the cell phone OS is just lactose intolerant.