Gearing up for CES, Microsoft's elves in Redmond must've been extremely busy as it appears that that software giant put in a special effort for its last-ever keynote at the show.
Rather than having Steve Ballmer take the stage and deliver his standard spiel at the audience, Microsoft did things a little differently, by bringing in US telly celeb Ryan Seacrest who interviewed Ballmer, chatted to guests and provided some plain English commentary while demos took place.
First up, Ballmer announced that T-Mobile customers in the US will be able to buy the Nokia Lumia 710 - Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 device.
Based on what I was able to see at the Microsoft stand, the Lumia 710 looked like a nicely-designed phone and its quirky interface feels intuitive in use while not getting in the way of most tasks I threw at it.
Staying on a high note, Ballmer also talked up Xbox 360 sales, which have passed the 66 million unit mark, and Xbox Live subscriber base, which is closing on 40 million globally. Its ground-breaking Kinect sensor has also chalked up serious sales, with more than 18 million shipped since launch.
