Maybe one of the advantages of being the richest man in the world is that people laugh at your jokes.
Yesterday Bill Gates revealed his company’s plans to take over the world, firing shots at Apple, Sony and Google, providing more details on its new operating system, and announcing a deal with BSkyB. But he still managed to engender much hilarity, as he spoke of the threat from Google, quipping: “I hear they’re coming out with a robot that will cook hamburgers, too. Let’s spread that rumour - there’s nothing they can’t do.”
As the laughter subsided, Mr Gates added: “Whatever they announce, they announce. They’re in their honeymoon period, and anything they announce gets hype … They will obviously branch out beyond Internet search, but I think the expectations won’t live up to reality.”
The man who once ran his company from a garage was making his tenth key note speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and he chose the occasion to reveal some of the most interesting plans from Microsoft for many a year.
It’s going head to head against Apple, with the release of its new music store Urge. Justin Timberlake was there to share adulation with Gates. Urge will initially hold 2 million tracks, have exclusive footage supplied by MTV, and will provide an “all you can eat option,” in which users pay a monthly subscription and can download anything they like from the service, a feature which will distinguish it from Apple’s iTunes.
But while Apple rivals Microsoft on one front, in the world of gaming the big rival is Sony. The new Sony PlayStation to be released later this year will include the new Blu-Ray DVD. Yesterday, Mr Gates announced plans to sell an external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 - bringing the format wars between the two standards to a new level of intensity. (HD-DVD is generally considered to be cheaper to manufacture, but Blu-Ray, with its 50 gigabytes of storage, has the greater capacity.)
As for the new version of Windows, Vista, some of its features were revealed yesterday. The software will boast a feature known as flip 3D, which will facilitate the ability to easily shift across multiple open windows, - although no doubt many users are more concerned about their computer’s tendency to crash if too many windows are left open.
Another feature of Vista revealed yesterday, was a side bar, which will run in the corner of the screen and could display news headlines, sports results or share prices.
Finally, Microsoft announced a tie in with BSkyB, and its US cousin Direct TV, for enabling video content supplied by the company to appear on Windows Media Center PCs.
In his speech Mr Gates said: “We’ve talked about this as a decade of digital lifestyle, work style. What that means is all these tools become mainstream. Software will come in and make things both simpler and more effective. Not having to think about disks, entertainment, having a digital jukebox anywhere in the house so you can call up the movies you want and see anything you want to.”
Google will have its opportunity to respond on Friday, when it will be its turn to take centre stage with one of its key people, maybe Page or Brin themselves, making a key note speech.
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