Dueling Keynotes: Phil Schiller at Macworld Expo vs. Steve Ballmer at CES

By  |  Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 9:41 pm

(if you came here looking for our live coverage of the Macworld Expo 2009 keynote, head over here.)

Macworld Expo 2009 Phil Schiller Keynote


Next week will see two tech trade show presentations by guys who are following very tough acts: Phil Schiller’s first (and last) Macworld Expo San Francisco keynote and Steve Ballmer’s first (and probably not last) Consumer Electronics Show one. Maybe I have a soft spot for underdogs–albeit extremely wealthy ones–but I’m actually looking forward to attending and covering both gentlemen’s speeches. (Trivia: I never went to any of the many, many keynotes by Bill Gates at Comdex and CES conferences that I covered.) I’ve already written a bit about the two keynotes; after the jump, a more formal comparison in the form of a T-Grid.

The show
Macworld Expo 2009
CES 2009
The keynoter
Phil Schiller
Phil Schiller, Senior VP Worldwide Marketing, Apple
Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft
Date,  time & location
Tuesday, January 6th, 9m PT; Moscone Center, San Francisco
Wednesday, January 7th, 6:30pm PT; the Venetian Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas
Technologizer live coverage
Audience members
Apple fans; Apple developers; journalists; Apple board member Al Gore
Employees of consumer-electronics manufacturers, distributors, and retailers; journalists
Other keynotes planned for show?
Yes–a bewildering four additional ones, including one by the CEO of Ford (doesn’t he have bigger issues to worry about at the moment?)
Keynoter mini-bio
Born 1960; Boston College graduate (major: biology); former Macromedia marketing executive; at Apple since 1997 (second tenure there; first lasted for six years)
Born 1956; Harvard graduate (major: mathematics) and Bill Gates college buddy; former Procter & Gamble assistant product manager; at Microsoft since 1980; became CEO in 2000
Keynoter liability
He isn’t Steve Jobs
He isn’t Bill Gates
Keynoter personal wealth
Unknown
$15 billion (source: Forbes)
Keynoter presentation style
Low-key and straightforward
Legendarily manic
Has keynoter keynoted before?
Yes, at Apple Expo Paris 2004, for instance
Memorable moment in prior appearances by keynoter
Being elevated above stage at Macworld Expo 1999 to prove his iBook’s connection to Steve Jobs’ Mac onstage was wireless
Rumored news at keynote
Nobody spends much time wondering about Microsoft CES keynotes, but TechCrunch reports that Ballmer will discuss Windows 7, Flash for Windows Mobile, two new Halo games, and home networking
Chances that keynoter will lay out vision for future of personal technology
Nonexistent
High
Celebrity guest appearances during keynote?
Conceivably. A musical guest at the end wouldn’t be surprising (Steve Jobs’ final keynote concluded with a performance by Randy Newman).
Likely. Gates’ 2008 keynote included a video featuring everyone from Jay-Z to Hillary Clinton; his 2006 one featured Justin Timberlake; and his 2005 one had Conan O’Brien.
Protests planned at keynote
None that I know of, though it wouldn’t be stunning to find people picketing and demanding the continued sale of Windows XP
Possible memorable wild-card
Speculation about a possible surprise Steve Jobs cameo doesn’t seem utterly insane.
It’ll be a miracle if Ballmer gets through the proceedings without a demo misbehaving amusingly
So there you go. More thoughts in real time next week as I attend both keynotes and liveblog them here–and afterwards, too, assuming there’s enough news to merit further musings…
 
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2 Comments For This Post

  1. steveballmer Says:
    January 4th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    I will murderlize the bum!

  2. John McElhenney Says:
    January 6th, 2009 at 8:14 am

    There is no competition! While Ballmer is know for his antics and will be up against a Jobs-less MW, does MS really have anything to crow about? Vista 7, or is it Windows 7?

    I will miss the REAL Steve Jobs today, but I am still looking forward to any innovations APPLE has been hiding under their kimono. An iTablet, based on the AIR but with no keyboard part, is the top of my wishlist. Or maybe an iPod with a HUGE hard drive, even my 160 gig is looking bloated.

    So, let’s see what you guys decide. Can we get someone to do the tag cloud comparison of their keynotes after they are done? That is very illuminating. And recently I’ve been playing with Twitter Venn, an awesome Venn Diagramming app that uses Twitter mentions as it’s data set. I’d like to see what that match up looks like. Oh, let’s see, I’ll run that one now… Venn Diagram of Ballmer vs Schiller via Twitter Venn

    Er… I guess you guys can decide for yourselves what the interest level is in the Twitter-verse.

    Cheers,

    @jmacofearth

    PS: If anyone knows how they did the auto tag cloud extractions from the text of last year’s keynotes, I’d be happy to run and host the results. Contact me via twitter at the above @! THX

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