All of Microsoft's Coolest Stuff Will Start at Home

4:10 AM - October 26, 2010 - By Marcus Yam - Source : Tom's Guide US

Ballmer says that Kinect will blow you away.
ZoomMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer took part in a Q&A at Gartner and was asked a couple of questions about what the next big things are from Microsoft.
While Ballmer did say earlier that Windows 8 was the big upcoming product risk, the company is optimistic on Windows Phone 7 to be the next billion-dollar-business.
Ballmer was asked what he thought, out of all of Microsoft's products, which is the "coolest thing ever." Ballmer said that he felt that Windows Phone 7 was pretty cool, but he didn't want to rehash his previous answer, so he pointed to the Xbox 360 Kinect as something amazing.
Ballmer said that "people will be blown away by some of the things you can do once you have smart cameras and smart microphones in an entertainment setting, you can morph how you think about the entire entertainment experience."
Jesting, one of the interviewers wanted to know if it was Xbox Kinect consumer version or enterprise version.
That got Ballmer on his feet to say "Let me help these guys; the one thing they don't understand – COOL starts at home."
With Apple's success in the consumer space, there could be a new attitude to focus on entertainment and devices, especially following up on the success of the Xbox 360.