Gates kicks off CES with look at home technology

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 10:43 a.m.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates introduced "Mira" to the world Monday night.

Judging from the enthusiastic response of an overflow crowd at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater to the introduction, she'd be welcome in many households -- as long as she's affordable.

Gates, kicking off the International Consumer Electronics Show with an employee-assisted keynote address, showed off what's on the high-tech horizon, with demonstrations of enhancements to three products already on the market and two new technologies that make computerized devices more accessible to users than ever.

The five-day convention, not open to the public, continued today with the opening of trade show floors at the Hilton, the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Riviera hotel-casino and suites at the Alexis Park Hotel, where high-end video products are being demonstrated.

The event, expected to draw more than 100,000 people to the city, is the first ever to be conducted in the new two-story $150 million South Hall expansion of the Convention Center.

Gates, a popular keynote speaker at the annual Comdex show every November, made his third straight kickoff appearance at CES. He took advantage of the strength Microsoft products have had in the marketplace during the holiday season to plug two new sets of technologies, code-named "Mira" and "Freestyle," that use wireless applications to extend, share and transport information.

"Freestyle" enables a new digital media experience by using a remote control to transfer photos, home movies and music from one device to another. "Mira"-enabled monitors can be detached, but continue to run computer applications, such as word processing, spread sheets, Internet browsing and e-mail messaging, thanks to wireless connections.

One of Gates' associates programmed a personal computer to record the Monday Night Football game to be fed later to a television monitor.

Gates and three associates also showed the next generation of Xbox technology -- enhanced graphics and competition on the video-game console over the Internet. He said that 3.2 million units have been sold since the product was launched in November.

Gates said the new Windows XP operating system, with 17 million units sold since its October launch, is the fastest-selling version of the software, and the $5.6 billion in holiday sales generated through the MSN e-commerce Internet site represented a 56 percent increase in sales over the 2000 holiday season.

Those advancements, he said, will raise consumer confidence and lead to even more sales.

"The willingness of consumers to embrace new technologies is dependent on their confidence in the ability of the industry, including Microsoft, to offer software, services and devices that put the consumer first in terms of security, privacy and reliability," Gates said.

He said the increased availability of broadband connections to homes and greater numbers of companies marketing "smart" consumer electronics products would advance the market in the next 10 years, a time frame he referred to as "the digital decade."

Kathleen Thorpe of Salem, Ore., and her 16-year-old son, Timothy, concurred that the connectivity offered by Mira products would be a handy addition to the home.

"I still haven't absorbed it all," said Timothy Thorpe, a high-school junior attending his second CES. "But I think people will like having the ability to pick up their screens and take their pictures and videos to a different part of the house. I know it's something I'd use at home."

His mother, an environmental consultant with Ktec Environmental Consulting, acknowledged that her son is the household computer expert and that portable computing would make her life easier, since she could take any problems to him as soon as they surface.

"But just think, now you'll have to keep track of your computer screens around the house," she said. "We have a hard enough time keeping track of remote controls."

They also concurred that cost will have a lot to do with the success of the new systems.

"The money aspect of it frightens me a little," Kathleen Thorpe said.

But Las Vegas technology expert Michael Beardslee said he thinks the United States will be well along the road to economic recovery by the time Microsoft gets around to mass-producing Mira-enabled devices.

"Personally, I think the recession is already starting to turn around," said Beardslee, president of IT Strategies, Las Vegas. "And while most of the stuff Gates was talking about is somewhat expensive, it's not going to be exorbitant and it probably will sell."

Gates did not talk about how much any of his devices would cost, but he said the price of most consumer electronics products is falling at the same time that machines are getting more powerful as the mass production of microchips will drive unit prices down.

Beardslee even thinks Las Vegans will be more inclined than residents of other cities to climb aboard Gates' new technologies.

"There's probably a little more discretionary money here," Beardslee said of Las Vegas. "You don't see the Lexus and Mercedes dealers hurting around here."

Microsoft also expects to capitalize on the reputation the company's software and devices has attained worldwide.

The popularity of the Xbox video game system has grown exponentially since the product's launch.

"You can tell when there's good buzz for your product when the brand becomes a part of the popular lexicon," said Seamus Blackley, a Microsoft associate who helped Chief Xbox Officer Robbie Bach demonstrate the future of the device with a concept video. "We had a guy on a snowboard run tell somebody with him, 'Dude, that was totally Xbox!' to describe one of his moves."

Bach and Blackley explained that the video game experience will take another leap forward when Xbox competitors later this year begin playing each other through Internet connections, a concept the device is already capable of delivering to players.

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