Bill Gates Sees End Of 'Device Categories' As PCs, Phones Merge

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is predicting that the distinction between personal computers, smart phones and other intelligent appliances will vanish as those devices are replaced by a common platform on which users will talk, text, work and play games.

"I tend to believe that the phone will move up and the PC will move down and there won't be any special device categories," said Gates, speaking Wednesday at Microsoft's CEO Summit in Redmond, Wa.

Gates noted that the newest generation of mobile phones features larger screens and enough internal processing power to play full motion video, while breakthroughs in transistor technology have paved the way for PCs small enough to fit in one's hand.

To make his point, Gates demonstrated a palmtop device powerful enough to run a full blown version of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system.

Addressing a group of chief executives, Gates said device convergence has profound implications for professionals in all fields. "In this new world of work you can work at home, you can work on the road, and if you have a company with many locations, the overhead, the problems that that creates, the need for trips and things is reduced by using the technology in the right way."

Gates said Microsoft is taking advantage of such technologies internally to improve efficiency and cut costs. For instance, for training sessions, the company has largely abandoned expensive meetings at lavish resorts. Instead, it's moved most of its worker education curricula online, so that employees can access it on their own time -- even through a mobile device. "Over 80 percent of what used to be face to face training is [now] done that way," Gates said.

Microsoft is itself looking to drive -- and cash in on -- the desire among consumers and businesses for mobile computing devices that could give a low-end PC a run for its money. In February, the company unveiled version 6 of its Windows Mobile smart phone operating system. Among other things, the software allows users to run a number of Microsoft Office applications that were previously only available on a desktop or laptop.

Still, Microsoft apparently hasn't ironed out all the bugs in its quest to deliver mobile computing with PC power. According to one mobile technology news site, Windows Mobile 6 doesn't synchronize properly with computers running the company's new Windows Vista operating system.

Source : www.informationweek.com