Gates makes claim for Microsoft's future
LAS VEGAS (AP) - January 7, 2008 A few months away from leaving his daily duties at Microsoft to
focus on his philanthropy, Gates used his traditional kickoff
keynote at the International Consumer Electronics Show to highlight
how Microsoft is extending the reach of its software beyond
desktops and servers, and incorporating alternative inputs like
voice and touch.
"The first digital decade has been a great success," he said.
"This is just the beginning. There's nothing holding us back from
going much faster and much further in the second digital decade."
Traditional PC programs got less airtime than in previous
keynotes. That contrast stood out considering not only the tepid
response for Microsoft's year-old Windows Vista operating system
but also the way that Web-based applications are threatening
Microsoft's hold on desktop computing.
Instead Gates bounced from cars - Microsoft's Sync technology
for playing music and making phone calls should be available in all
Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles in the 2009 model year - to the
living room. Gates and Robbie Bach, who heads Microsoft's
entertainment division, announced an expansion of the
high-definition Hollywood movies and TV shows that can be
downloaded through the Xbox video game console's online service.
Those include shows from ABC television and other properties of
Walt Disney Co. (which, by the way, counts Microsoft uber-rival and
Apple Inc. chief Steve Jobs as its biggest individual shareholder).
Gates also explained how Mediaroom, the Internet-based
television platform that Microsoft created for telecommunications
companies to sell, will work with TNT and Showtime to let users
select their own camera angles when viewing sports. For example, a
Nascar fan could maintain a constant view from his favorite
driver's car, or plug into a certain ringside shot in a boxing
match. For now, though, Mediaroom is mainly used for TV services in
other countries.
Microsoft will have another chance to show its video talents
this summer, when it runs NBC's online Olympics portal, which is
designed to let people zero in on specific events that interest
them.
"Building great connected TV experiences is not just a hobby
for Microsoft," Bach said.
Gates and Bach talked up improvements in ways for people to
interact with software by voice, touch and gesture. In addition to
the speech-recognizing functions in Sync-enabled cars, Microsoft
plans to soon upgrade the voice-activated information searches
available through its subsidiary Tellme. It also will augment the
system underlying Surface, Microsoft's computer in a table that
responds to users' touches and gestures.
Surface is debuting as a virtual concierge in hotels, but Gates
hopes it will soon be used in retail stores. For example, Gates
showed how an outdoors-shop customer could use a Surface table to
customize a snowboard and transfer an image of his creation to a
mobile device simply by putting it on the table.
It was that kind of demonstration that inspired thousands of
techies to begin lining up for the speech more than four hours
before it started.
What they might not have expected - and what they clearly
relished - was a self-deprecating farewell video in which Gates
mocked the idea that he would desperately cast about for things to
do after retiring as Microsoft's chief software architect this
July.
It showed a giddy Gates rapping, trying to lift weights,
pleading for a spot in U2 and lobbying for a place on a
presidential ticket. The video's cameo appearances from the likes
of Brian Williams, Jay-Z, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore,
Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg and George Clooney provoked
uproarious laughter - not a common occurence at a tech conference.