Gates sights tech leap, says PCs not perfect

Peter Henderson

LAS VEGAS: Bill Gates admitted it -- PCs don't work very well. And he

promised to fix that -- over the next decade.

Opening the largest US computer trade show, COMDEX, Gates, the chairman and

chief software architect of Microsoft Corp., predicted that technology would

eventually come together well enough to fade into the background and let users

focus on what they want to do.

The economy would feel a boost as a result, he said.

"It's got to be a lot easier than it is today," Gates said,

referring to the "laborious process" of fixing computer problems,

fears of programs crashing each other, and the difficulties of actually using

advances, such as Microsoft's software for Internet meetings.

"It has been too hard to set up," he complained.

Reflecting widespread mixed feelings within the industry in the wake of the

Sept. 11 hijacking attacks on the United States, Gates optimistically predicted

technology would roar ahead in the next decade. He said it would jack up

productivity in what he called a "digital decade" and he voiced fears

that shortcomings could allow the technology be turned against those it was

intended to serve.

"In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the

productivity improvement that we provided in the 90s," he told the audience

in Las Vegas.

But, speaking two months after hijacked planes destroyed New York's World

Trade Center and damaged the US Pentagon, Gates added, "We don't want our

digital systems to have weaknesses that allow tragedies." Although as many

as 125,000 to 150,000 people are expected to visit COMDEX in Las Vegas this

week, that attendance will be down some 25 per cent or more from last year.

Viewers will have to check bags and trudge through airport-style metal

detectors to get to the show, where top themes are expected to be security and

wireless networking.

Gates promised tighter security in Microsoft programs, preferred targets for

malicious hackers that have used the Outlook email program to automatically

propagate computer viruses. He also pledged tighter integration with Internet

sites so that data seamlessly moves off the network to where it is needed --

letting a credit card charge jump into an expense report, for instance.

Gates offered some hope in the midst of the consumer spending gloom, saying

Microsoft's Windows XP multimedia-friendly operating system had sold twice as

many retail copies in its first two weeks as any previous version of Windows,

deflecting a perception among personal computer makers that XP would not

noticeably boost PC sales.

Licenses had hit 7 million, he said.

Despite fears that homes and businesses were becoming saturated with

computers, Gates predicted that within five years the most popular form of

computer would be a Tablet style pad Microsoft and hardware makers will launch

late next year. This is a notebook computer that also lets users jot notes and

diagrams, as if drawing on paper.

Gates showed prototypes of Tablet PC, which he announced last year at COMDEX,

and which he expected to be selling by this time next year. The tablets by

Compaq Computer Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and some other major manufacturers, included

boxy pads with a screen on top and notebook computers with screens that swivel

and bent backward to face outwards to look like a notepad.

Gates also demonstrated the XBOX game player that will go on sale this

Thursday, extending Microsoft into the game playing arena, one of the most

resilient technology markets in the current downturn. However, he said home

wireless networking and high-speed Internet would take a few years to reach most

US homes.

Microsoft's vision of a technological future where everything speaks to

everything else, eliminating the need for constantly retyping phone numbers or

to find a computer to get information off the Web, is common in the industry.

However, competitors like network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. say

Microsoft's products do not work well enough with others.

Microsoft failed to successfully launch a pad-style computer about five years

ago, which the company now says was due to hardware and software not up to the

task.

Alex Loeb, general manger of the Tablet PC division, said handwriting

technology had improved, but there was a limit to its use. "We do a bang-up

job of for recognizing some people," she said in a telephone interview.

"And for people who can't read their own handwriting - we are right there

with them."

(C) Reuters Limited.