CES: Microsoft does away with the DVR, partners with Verizon for search

Instead, the majority of Microsoft’s other announcements at the keynote centered on the PC environment and its Xbox 360 gaming device. First was the launch of a Beta of its Windows 7 operating system, with new simplified features, toolbars and navigation tools, open to public beginning tomorrow. Next came three upgrades to the Windows Live platform: the addition of Windows Live essentials including mail, messenger and photo gallery, a social networking partnership with Facebook and a partnership with Dell to preload Windows Live Essentials and Live Search on all its consumer and small business PCs come February.

President of Microsoft's entertainment and devices Robbie Bach also noted that the Xbox 360’s online community enabled through Xbox Live, an on-demand entertainment platform, has grown 70% to more than 17 million members that spend more than $1 billion on the service. From the service provider perspective, this could be a mixed blessing, as the box can also double as an IPTV STB and, through a recent partnership with Netflix, consumers can use it to stream movies over the top of their broadband connections, bypassing the carrier altogether.

“We have a bigger opportunity now than we did 25 years ago to make a big difference in peoples’ lives,” Ballmer said in his keynote address. “Microsoft is transforming what Windows is from a PC operating system to a connected system across the PC, the TV, the phone and the cloud.”

Ballmer did, of course, also make one jab at Apple, noting that, “the choice that offers the power and most value for the money is the PC. That’s why we say, ‘I am a PC and proud of it.’”