Microsoft's Ballmer to talk Windows 7 at CES

Microsoft will have a bunch of stuff to show at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but a rumoured ZunePhone won't be one of them, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.

Instead, much of CEO Steve Ballmer's focus will be on talking about Windows 7 from a consumer perspective. Microsoft is pushing to have Windows 7 done in time for the holiday 2009 shopping season, so that means this CES is Ballmer's best stage to tout its benefits.

While the desktop operating system will be front and centre, sources say to expect Ballmer to talk about how Windows is moving beyond the PC and into a world of PC, web and phone, a refrain we also heard a lot from Ray Ozzie at November's Professional Developers Conference, where the world also got its first good look at Windows 7.

On the phone front, Microsoft may not have a ZunePhone, but it is going ahead with several other strategies - pushing phone makers to develop phones based on Windows Mobile, developing Windows Live services for phones running a variety of operating systems as well as a number of new "premium mobile services" based on its Danger acquisition.

The company has also talked about extending its Zune service beyond the company's own dedicated player and mentioned the phone as a logical place to access the service.

Original article: Ballmer to talk Windows 7, not ZunePhone, at CES from CNET News.com