Buoyant Ballmer touts Microsoft advances to developers

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer pumped up the next generation of the Web and Windows Phone 7 in his opening keynote Thursday at the Professional Developers Conference in Redmond,

"We really kind of nailed it," Ballmer said of Windows Phone 7, the new mobile phone that will start selling in the U.S. on Nov. 8. "Windows Phone is a different kind of phone. It looks different, it works different."

Ballmer was jovial in a broad speech that covered Windows 7, Internet Explorer and Windows Phone 7, Internet Explorer and Windows 7.

"I am pumped up to have a chance to be here today," he said. "I may not do the developer prance since I don't think I can ever do it as well ... ," referring to the viral video of him dancing around the stage shouting "Developers!"

He pulled an Oprah and said all the paid attendees at the conference will get a free Windows Phone 7.

Ballmer talked up the phone's "thoroughly modern" user interface. "You take a Windows Phone and you just wooooo."

He also talked about the range of devices that will be available this year from AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile USA, ranging from the "rugged" to the "more refined, gentle and elegant."

Ballmer said Microsoft is going to be "pumping" the television commercials in the market, which parody people staring at their mobile-phone screens.

"On the cloud, we're all in," Ballmer said. "Make no mistake on it. When it comes to Windows Phone, we're all in."

Ballmer also spent time talking up the next-generation Web and HTML5. Microsoft recently released a test version of Internet Explorer 9 for free download. Since its release six weeks ago, it has been downloaded 10 million times, Ballmer said.

HTML5 is the Web coding standard that will allow for richer, more animated websites. It will make what happens in a browser feel more like an application or a game.

"The glue that allows this world to come together and allows for amazing innovation is HTML5," Ballmer said, talking about a world that spans cloud-computing platform Azure, Office 365 and Windows Live.

He called it a "lingua franca that talk to all of these smart devices across the planet."

A new platform preview for developers, Platform Preview 6 for Internet Explorer 9, became available Thursday at www.ietestdrive.com.

Ballmer also gave an updated number on the Windows 7 operating system, which has now sold 240 million copies.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

Azure expands

At the Professional Developers Conference on Thursday, Microsoft announced several new features for its cloud-computing platform Azure.

The new features are aimed at making it easier and cheaper for companies to migrate to cloud computing.

Here's a hail of bullets on new features:

• Virtual machine features. This will allow companies to move their server applications that run on Windows Server to the cloud without having to rewrite the code for the Azure platform. It's called the Windows Azure Virtual Machine Role and Server Application Virtualization.

• Application marketplace. Microsoft has built the Windows Azure Marketplace, an app store like iTunes for companies to sell cloud applications. It includes DataMarket, a data marketplace, previously code-named Dallas.

• Minipricing. To reduce a customer's financial risk of trying out the cloud, Microsoft says it will offer the Extra Small Windows Azure Instance, which costs 5 cents per computing hour.

— Sharon Pian Chan