Bill Gates headlines consumer electronics tradeshow
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates unofficially opened the world's largest consumer electronics tradeshow in Las Vegas on Sunday, heralding the onset of a new "digital decade."
In his last keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, Gates lauded how computers and the Internet have become ubiquitous and predicted the coming ten years will deliver even greater technology changes.
"The first digital decade has been a great success," Gates told an overflow audience in a ballroom at the Venetian hotel and casino.
"The first digital decade has been a great success," Gates told an overflow audience in a ballroom at the Venetian hotel and casino.
"This is just the beginning. There is nothing holding us back from going much faster and further in the second digital decade."
There are more than a billion personal computers in use in the world and more than 40 percent of people on the planet have mobile telephones, according to Gates.
The new digital decade will be increasingly "user-centric" and the trend is for media and entertainment to be software driven, Gates said.
"The second digital decade will be more focused on connecting people," he continued. "Those applications will run on the Internet, in the cloud as we say, and use the best of software services."
The comment came as an admission that the market is moving away from Microsoft's longtime core money-maker, packaged software that people install on their own machines.
Gates said high-definition video experiences "will be everywhere," from televisions to wall projections and even built into desks or tables.
Gates said high-definition video experiences "will be everywhere," from televisions to wall projections and even built into desks or tables.
People will roam in increasingly realist three-dimensional virtual worlds, tending to business, shopping and other aspects of daily life, he contends.
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