Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Gives MWC Attendees a ... Demo

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — Fresh from Friday's announcement that Nokia and Microsoft will be collaborating going forward with a Windows Phone OS and Nokia hardware combo – a sweeping arrangement that is geared to somewhat save both companies' relevance in the mobile market – Microsoft's Steve Ballmer took to the stage. To give us ... a demo. Wrapped in a rather vague "keynote" package.

It was a hot ticket: The hot rush of too many people crowded into a very small space waiting for entry was proof enough of that. A 30-minute boarding process that would make Holsteins at the factory farm wince notwithstanding, eventually all were seated and expectantly, dare I say raptly, awaiting words from the Big Newsmaker.

But it was not to be. Well, the fireworks anyway. Ballmer did not bring the fireworks. There was, it must be said, a surprise appearance by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who at least discussed his hopes for the partnership. Re-entering the U.S. market, notably. Global reach. Providing differentiation in the form of operator billing. Iconic design paired with the world's most widely known OS (Windows, in general). The focus today, he said, is to deliver those first devices, and then help Nokia build strength form there.

Ballmer, on the other hand, started off making some announcements, embedded in between stuff we were already aware of – like, Twitter integration will be coming soon to Windows Phone. As will multitasking. And the coolest thing, Kinect integration, so you can use a Windows Phone device as a mini-controller for games, with an avatar on the device standing in your body. Also, IE 9 will be arriving in a mobile-optimized fashion, to offer better graphics performance.

Other than that, though, Ballmer – and crony Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president – put Windows Phone through its paces for the audience. Joe made use of demos and a not-live, yet euphemistically dubbed "real world" demo (the phone clearly said "no service") of cloud apps and a side-by-side graphics comparison of Safari and IE9. We got to see the live tiles. And the hubs. And all the stuff Microsoft announced months and months and months ago. He exhorted the audience to run out and buy a Windows Phone device. You know, for our own good. This last part made me wonder if they understood the audience they were speaking to at all. Well, that and the IT-speak. "Let me sow you some live code!" As a friend said, this isn't Comdex, guys.

Oh and they played up Facebook integration. A lot.

So, ho-hum. Ballmer did wrap up the keynote (and again I use the "K"-word very lightly) with an update on developer progress. Four months after launch, there are 8,000 apps available for Windows Phone, and rising, Baller said, "at a rapid rate." There are 30K developers that have registered to write to it though. And there have been about 1 million downloads of the Visual Studio SDK. "All of which bears promise," Ballmer said. "There's still work to do."

Regarding Nokia, Ballmer simply mentioned the deal as an important one, one which would create an ecosystem that is the most operator-friendly ecosystem available, free from the fragmentation that "all other platforms are currently experiencing." Windows Phone, he said, will thrive with scale and variety – a good thing, he underscored, for ALL of Microsoft's handset partners. Details were not forthcoming. Film at 11?

So that's that, the highly anticipated big B taking the stage. I can only hope that MSFT learns from the audible rumbling from the attendees when the laundry list of already-announced features started rolling in. Fresh meat is what we want. You say you know content, Steve. Well, then give us some.