Qualcomm’s opening keynote today started with three young actors of the age that’s “born mobile” — those whose phones give them “the entire world in our hand.”
Qualcomm Chief Executive Paul Jacobs is only the third person to fill the evening spot before the giant trade show opens, noted Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association that hosts the event. The previous two were Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
Then he brought a surprise guest on stage — Ballmer, who demonstrated two Windows tablets and two smartphones, all running Qualcomm hardware.
The Microsoft CEO, sporting a clean-shaven, Jeff Bezos look, talked up progress made with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 and new capabilities such as Xbox SmartGlass that lets people control their TVs with Windows Phones and tablets.
Ballmer then thanked Jacobs for “the opportunity to partner with Qualcomm” and bring people new Windows-based products “with an experience that was born mobile.”
