9:14 – Whew, just made it in time. Everyone seems a lot more relaxed than yesterday, and a lot more hung over (I guess they were partying with Trip, too).
9:15 – Here we go. Once again we have conference chair Matthew Bellows straight talkin’ about the industry. We’re starting to perk up a little bit; the first stage of the industry was based on casual adoption, the second stage on carriers dropping the price of higher-end handsets. But that’s not enough – it would just be TV before cable (i.e. not reaching our full potential). Innovation from all sides is necessary to prevent this from happening.
9:19 – Now co-chair Eric Goldberg is going to talk a bit about what’s happening today. Mmm, Microsoft’s Live Anywhere…that’s what I’m talking about.
9:20 – Chris Early has taken the stage. This keynote is all about Microsoft. For the majority of its life as a company, it has focused on productivity. But recently, a digital lifestyle has emerged to counter the typical digital workstyle. Microsoft Casual Games works across all Microsoft platforms to develop games (Xbox Live Arcade, Windows, MSN,etc).
9:24 - So where is Microsoft going? They announced at E3 they’re entering the mobile space. The thinking was that they could leverage their knowledge of communities and do something cool in the mobile space — hence, Live Anywhere.
9:25 – The Vision: Single, common user identity. A common, universal community. A common digital object economy. Games that roam. One billing relationship (!!!). Sounds like gold, Chris!
9:27 – Now he’s demoing a smartphone with a “concept build” of Live Anywhere. Chris is talking about making sure that LA runs across all platforms: Java, Brew, Windows Mobile. LA is an application, not a WAP page; this allows them to make the application a lot more feature-rich.
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