Microsoft is at a important point in its expand efforts in the consumer stadium . fellowship Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates used his keynote computer address at the International Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ) to unveil the Windows Home Server and announce that major military service providers like AT&T would offer the Xbox 360 as a dictated - top box alternative . These declaration watch over the launch of the Zune MP3 player and come in correctly before the late January release of the retail version of Vista .
A few hours before his keynote speech , Gates took clock time to discuss the development of what the company calls machine-accessible entertainment . He also talked about the time to come of ware statistical distribution over the connection , how far Microsoft will go in hardware , and — as he enter his last 18 months at Microsoft full fourth dimension — lesson he ’s learn as a technology visionary . An edited transcript of the interview follow :
IDGNS : You ’ve been work on IPTV ( Internet Protocol Television ) for some metre now and with the annunciation that divine service supplier will be offering the Xbox essentially as a set - top box alternative , it seems things are coming together . Can you verbalise about how this number about — what happened on the technical side and what occur on the line side to make this lot come to fruition ?
Gates : manifestly the success of the 360 — in damage of getting the very best game that practice mellow definition and catch citizenry online so they could find their acquaintance , do contests , be spectators — that ’s become a key part of advanced gaming . In latitude with the Xbox 360 being developed , people like AT&T and others play their company on having a res publica - of - the - art telecasting offering and we became the partner to provide the software platform for that . And so they spent 2006 catch it put together .
Now in the next two years they ’re really gon na drive the numbers in a very big direction . The idea of take as one of their offerings the ability to connect up to Xbox we think will be very attractive . In some style you could think of this as a convergence gimmick ; it let you project any personal computer in the home through the extender up into the animation room . It lets you download high definition videos . It lets you play video recording game and now with IPTV it gives you the state - of - the - art TV see experience .
So all those thing you want in the livelihood room really do n’t require five outside controls and dissimilar drug user interfaces . Obviously as we drive the price down because of the incredible volumes there , that will allow this , as a set - top box , to not be a super premium cost and yet have manner more capableness than the full term go under - top box has ever called to mind .
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates discusses some of the raw features of Windows Vista at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show .
IDGNS : You used the condition convergence . How does the Home Server primed into your vision of the connected amusement home ? Is there a scenario where a home might have a Home Server , an Xbox , a Media Center personal computer and a Zune ? How do they knead together ?
Gates : Whenever you have multiple equipment including multiple personal computer that you desire to deal information with , it ’s always been a bit complicated . Do you leave those PCs on and do connexion PC - to - PC ? We need something that you just plug in , is very simple-minded and not only allow access within the home but remotely , and so that ’s what we ’ve been work out on . We ’ve got some good pardner . HP is a lead collaborator on this . We ’ve made it abominably simple and we think in a multiple personal computer family this could be quite popular .
IDGNS : In an era when more and more people are download software over the World Wide Web do you think that Vista and the latest Office acquittance will be the last of the sort of old school , large - smash Cartesian product releases ? Do you see , in the time to come , major upgrades available as a serial of downloadable upgrades ?
Gates : Well , you may download Windows Vista as an upgrade ; you may download Office as an upgrade . Those are things that we ’ve enable . A lot of the core feature article are available to you on an on-going basis because you ’re tie in up .
We will , every three years or so , have heavy upgrades to Office and Windows . Because when you desire to change the scheduler , when you want to lend vision , when you want to add speech , when you need to make it so that it can find out all the devices like screens as you go by or connect up to your Palm’to test the compatibility and get the developer enthused about that , will outfit the major release substitution class . ( But ) a band of the layers we can rev up in a very quick means . We ’ve seen some of that now . With the base investing we ’ve made with Vista , we ’ll be a lot more agile on those upper layer elements .
IDGNS : For days Microsoft executives including yourself seemed to want to avoid the hardware business . Now over the years that ’s been transfer . You have Zune of grade , and Xbox — do you foresee a time when you get into other area in term of designing and make a product , albeit through contract manufacturing business , on both the package and the computer hardware side ?
Gates : Well , the design side has always been a collaboration between us and the PC manufacturer — I see that with the HP cutaneous senses screen machine that they did with our Vista squad or this new Sony Media Center , this really hot Toshiba portable that you do n’t have to connect up to dock . We do prototypes , you see that on the phones with the skinny relationships we have with the sound manufacturers .
I do n’t see any other form factors where we need to do hardware . I could be surprised on that . You eff , we ’ve run across some family that have fairly particular economic science — the subsidized picture game and then the pre - eminent position Apple got into in the music player , and now us come and suppose , hey , we can furnish something that ’s even better .
IDGNS : You do n’t want to get into the phone business for example ?
Gates : No , no , no — we love the variety and the innovation that our spouse bring in to that earpiece quad . seem at the different way you ’re gon na have mapping and wallet and medium , and the different input and screen size . It ’s nifty that Windows Mobile is going to be out on hundreds of cast factors — no exclusive fellowship could offer that .
IDGNS : Going to the new UI ( user interface ) in Office was a bit of a risk . What are the new risk that are keeping you up at nights these days ?
Gates : Well , the fun of being in this business is that it ’s always change so you need to make bets . We made the IPTV calculate a retentive time ago and that ’s just set about to ante up off . We made the Xbox bet and people are just set off to see we ’re in a very potent position there . The Tablet stakes , you have it off , citizenry do n’t quite see that yet . Media Center — some do , some do n’t . Some of the more modern things that are still in inquiry — vision , speech — I believe will be mainstream . We put massive amounts into those and they ’ll come into the distinctive experience that you have with the PC .
New fashion of programming for parallel computing : That ’s a very of import thing for us as these new chips have so many nucleus in them , and Microsoft has the right firearm — the proper operating system of rules , the good applications , the right development peter to show people how to write that next generation of applications . So you know , we begin ta make indisputable we ’re hiring the best people and we ’ve always had incredible competitors like we do today . It keeps this business a lot of fun .
IDGNS : You mention the Tablet PC , it seems that ’s been earnest to your heart over the years …
gate : Absolutely .
IDGNS : … and WinFS . As you transition to more of a part - timekeeper in the years in advance are there any facial expression of the Microsoft business sector that you ’ll need to keep closer tabs on than others , projects that you ’re particularly interested in ?
Gates : Well , as I in mid-2008 stop being full - time , the overall technological supervision of the overall strategy , Ray Ozzie together with Craig Mundie foot that up so they ’ll have that . Those two together with Steve Ballmer will determine what projects they require to pick for my part time work and focus it on . There ’s a ripe chance they ’ll beak some thing I ’ve always consider in and shown heat for and that even 18 months from now might not be done so sure , Tablet I think is a good candidate for that list . And Steve ’s excited about some piece of work I ’m doing and some other raw areas as well .
IDGNS : As you plunge more and more into philanthropy , looking back at your legacy in technology and the lessons you ’ve learned as a business loss leader , what adult moral have you learned that ’s really informed your work in philanthropic gift , what are you taking forth from the worldly concern of business that ’s shaping how you come near philanthropy ?
Gates : Well , the original optimism that I had when Microsoft got embark on — that if you got a bunch of sassy people together , gave them a clear mission , a bit of resources , they can do improbable things — that I think is one of the most muscular things I take into tough challenge like vaccinum for AIDS or malaria . How do we find these neat multitude who come from unlike locations , how do we get behind them , how do we see at what those risks are , make that a very high bandwidth , very in high spirits morale character process ? Some people , when they see tough problem , they think “ wow , is that resolvable ? ” My come in with my optimism and resource often can , I go for , drive those thing forth . That ’s sure as shooting been a magical formula for Microsoft . I hope it wreak in those toughened arena as well .
