@ CES: Microsoft Keynote: Bach Says Mobile Phones To Be Important 'In The Future'

During Bill Gates’ keynote Sunday at CES, he brought Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s (NSDQ: MSFT) Entertainment and Devices division to the stage, to speak about Windows Mobile phones, among other things. Bach said the company expects that there will be 20 million Windows Mobile devices sold in 2008, more than ever before, and pointed out that more Windows Mobile devices outsell BlackBerrys and the iPhone.

Bach said that mobile phones will be very important “in the future” — a curious comment given the huge number of mobile subscribers worldwide and the fact (which he also pointed out) that mobile phones outsell PCs 4 to 1. The comment did little to quell the feeling that Microsoft doesn’t fully “get” mobile, and sees them as just a smaller PC screen. This sentiment was reinforced by the mobile demos, which displayed voice-based search and streaming video on a handset — neither exactly new, innovative or wow-inducing.

Comments have been disabled for this post