Microsoft just couldn’t stay away from CES 2013 as planned. The company announced last year that 2012 would be its final year delivering the opening keynote for the Consumer Electronics Show, a tradition that started in 2003 with Bill Gates. That didn’t stop current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to giddily run on stage during Qualcomm’s opening presentation to greet CEO Paul Jacobs.
Ballmer’s cameo appearance was planned ahead of time, of course. In the video embedded below trimmed just to show Ballmer’s debut, you can even see Jacobs having a hard time hiding his smirk because he knows very well what’s about to happen.
Sure enough, about 15 minutes into the presentation, Ballmer came on stage to talk just for a few minutes about Windows 8 RT and some new devices with Qualcomm chips inside. He also boasted that the number of apps in the Windows 8 Store as quadrupled since the operating system’s launch, and over 10,000 new apps were added in the past month alone with more on the way. Additionally, Windows Phone smartphone sales were five times stronger during Christmas week this year than the same period a year before, according to Ballmer.
Qualcomm went on to announce its new ultra fast Snapdragon 800 and 600 series chipsets during the keynote.
Check out the clip of Steve Ballmer’s brief but enthusiastic appearance at CES 2013 below.