Gates Sees Year of Achievements Toward Digital Age
LAS VEGAS -- The digital age is starting to live up to expectations, with phones, TVs and other devices linking up with PCs in new ways, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told a standing room only audience Wed. night at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“We predicted at the beginning of this decade that this would be a decade that the digital approach would be taken for granted, whether it’s photos, music, communications, and there was a lot of work to do,” Gates said. “This has been a great year moving toward the digital lifestyle. I'd say it’s going even faster than we have expected.”
Among announcements Gates hyped was a BellSouth deal making it the 2nd Bell, after SBC, to adopt Microsoft software to deliver Internet-based video programming. Gates noted Microsoft has been spending $6 billion yearly on R&D. BellSouth announced it started a technical trial of the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform. It said it planned to test the video offering during the first half of 2005.
Gates appeared on a mock talk show with late night host Conan O'Brien, who led him through a funny though scripted presentation on Microsoft technology. But some of the laughs at Gates’ expense were unscripted. Discussing a new Nikon digital camera, O'Brien tried to show photos the 2 had allegedly taken during a drunken night on the town in Vegas. The PC screen froze repeatedly leading O'Brien to joke: “Who’s in charge of Microsoft, anyway?” Later, when a product manager tried to demonstrate the “user-friendliness” of the soon-to- premiere video game Forza Motor Sport, the computer warned, “out of system memory.”
O'Brien asked Gates about criticisms “Microsoft just doesn’t get it when it comes to the consumer.” Gates acknowledged: “We've certainly had our fair share of successes and our fair share of things we had to do a version 2 and a version 3 of.” Gates said the CES show, at which he has delivered a keynote address for 7 years, is critical in making the case for new technologies Microsoft is helping to develop. “That’s why this show is so important,” he said. “You can see where that progress is. You can see the high-definition screens that are coming down in price… You can see the new phones, the PCs.” Gates said Microsoft’s entering content partnerships, including agreements with Discovery, Yahoo and Fox Sports, may be the most significant recent development.
Further, Gates announced Korea’s LG Electronics, owner of Zenith Electronics, will build a DVD recorder that uses Microsoft’s digital video recording software. He also said the number of Windows XP Media Center PCs more than doubled last year to 1.5 million. “We are very excited about the progress,” he said.