It’s as traditional as the Bill Gates keynote on the eve of CES: the careful parceling out of interviews and tidbits. The latest but surely not the last installment is a page-one WSJ profile of Robbie Bach and his leadership role in Microsoft’s connected entertainment strategy. Sunday night’s keynote will include a presentation from Bach, who pushed Xbox to success (and the presidency of the entertainment and devices division) and is trying to do the same now for Zune—both prime examples of the way he thinks. Bach wants more integration with other Microsoft units, more outside content partnerships and more connections between devices. And it all has to be done without creating another tech kludge.
Some details:
—During a five-hour strategy meeting on Dec. 14, Gates pushed Bach and his team to speed up the plans. Bach: “They want us to move as quickly as we possibly can. Apple has a lot of market share—we need to move quickly. Our share in the cellphone space is improving and growing but we need to move quicker there. Even in video games, there’s still plenty of unfinished business there.” Bach wants the entertainment pieces to all fit together.
—Bach reiterates support for Zune as a brand, not just a single product: “This is a project that’s going to be here for a long time.”
—Bach probably will demonstrate the Xbox Live movie download service during the keynote.
—Bach’s power can be seen in the way his division has evolved. One example is the shift of the Media Center software group to his portfolio, something protested by the Windows division. That fits with the way his group has taken central responsibility for managing business relationships with content partners.
More from CES.