Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association of America opened the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show and then handed the floor over to the man behind the company that has marketed and commoditised the digital world.
The theme for Bill Gates’s keynote was connected experiences and it tied in well with the launch of Microsoft’s latest operating system release Windows Vista and Office 2007 – a first simultaenous launch since Windows 95.
Gates started by describing the current period as an exciting time where ‘65% of homes have digital cameras, where 40% of households in the US
have multiple PCs and where most young people spend more time on their PCs than actually watching TVs. The latter, Gates described
as a ‘fundamental shift’.
Gates also congratulated the CE industry in delivering ‘incredible devices with high fidelity’ ‘We are in time where High Definition
is truly available, where network bandwidth has increased significantly, where processors have hit 64bit, where graphics are delivering
real experiences to consumers and where in storage, we now talk in terabytes and petabytes.’
On the downside, Gates stated that work still needs to be done on the connections. He asked content creators to consider where they connected in and to also consider that the consumer experience is now also a business user experience as user shift from entertainment to work quickly on different devices.
Gates then went on to tout Vista as the company’s ‘highest quality release ever.’ He said that Windows and Office will connect to services
and then provided a stunning example: From a document in Word about his itinerary for the Las Vegas, he clicked on a hypertext link
and was taken to Windows Live and from there connected to a 3D map of Las Vegas. He was then able to plug in an Xbox 360 controller
into his laptop and navigate his way to his hotel for a 3D view.
Gates also talked about video on demand services, only available in the US available to consumer through Vista and a new digital photo
editing feature called Groupshots where a user can combine two shots of the same subject – the software will automatically remove
imperfections such as red eye and blur – and create the perfect photo.
Gates also demonstrated the full motion desktop where a photo screensaver is replaced with a video screensaver.
Ultimately, Gates said that the strength of Windows was the ecosystem that surrounds it and he paid tribute to the hardware vendors
who have innovated with new PC form factors – for example, HP with its Touchsmart PC – a touch sensitive computer, Sony with its Vaio
circular media centre and then the Origami ultra mobile PC.
He then talked about the launch of Windows Home Server with the unveiling of HP’s Mediasmart device which provides a central storage
and server box which can be connected to locally and remotely. It will be released in the second half of the year in the US.
Gates said that Intel and AMD has also been enrolled as partners for Windows Home Server.
Gatest than handed over to the head of entertainment at Microsoft, Robbie Bach who made two stunning points:
There are over 200 million gamers on Windows, making it the largest platform, ‘the arrival of Direct X and easier to install
in Vista’ should only expand the base.
He also said that there are now 20.4 million Xbox 360 game consoles and that a third were new gamers. While 5 million were on the
Xbox live network making it the ‘largest social network on a TV platform’. He then said TV and movies would be accessed in a number
of ways through the Xbox 360 – through a HD DVD player, streamed from a media centre PC though its built-in Extender capabilities
and delivered through its new Xbox Live video marketplace service where gamers in the US can download movies and TV shows from
content companies such as Lionsgate though their games console. Finally Bach unveiled IPTV through the Xbox 360 – interactive menus,
PIP features and BT as a local partner in UK and Ireland.
Gates cam back on stage and demonstrated his vision of the connected home of the future – standing at a bus stop he gets time table
And local services details pushed through to him via Windows Mobile, he used a digital signature and his IP camera to sign for a
Package remotely at home. In the kitchen, he cooks with suggested recipes based on suggestions generated by RFID communications with
ingredient packages he has left on his work surface. Finally, in the bedroom, he customises his envrons with stunning high definition
footage.
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