For some time now, we've been talking about Microsoft's transformation to a devices and services company. Make no mistake, we're still a software company at our core, but increasingly, the value of that software is expressed through the devices and services we deliver to consumers and businesses.
That transformation came to 1080p HD life with our introduction of Xbox One. And it wasn't just the fantastic device on centre stage, it was the amazing content from our partners, the other Microsoft services lighting it up, and the other Microsoft devices making it work as one.
Devices
A new console with more than five billion (yes, billion) transistors and eight gigabits of RAM, paired with a completely redesigned Kinect sensor that can process more than two gigabits of data per second and an updated controller with more than 40 design innovations. And devices that can work together through the magic of Xbox SmartGlass technology, which has more than 10 million downloads since its introduction last year.
Services
Let's start with the re-imagined Xbox Live service. More powerful. More personal. More intelligent. And a whole lot more scalable. As Marc Whitten explained yesterday, when we first launched Xbox Live more than a decade ago, it was powered by 500 servers. Today, 15 000 servers housed in data centres power the service, and later this year, when we begin selling Xbox One, we'll have 300 000 servers delivering the service. That's how you deliver a highly scalable, highly available service to tens of millions of simultaneous users, and provide the kind of split-second switching between games, television and entertainment apps that we witnessed.
* Frank Shaw is VP of corporate communications at Microsoft.
* Article courtesy of Microsoft; read the rest here.
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