Gates focuses on business in Comdex keynote

Monday, Nov. 17, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

In a year when the organizers of Comdex promised to deliver more substance than size, keynote speaker Bill Gates kept with the script.

Gates, chairman and chief software architect of software giant Microsoft Corp., on Sunday demonstrated features that business people have asked for -- anti-spam filtering technology, improved computer security measures and a search tool that will make it easier for computer users to find stored information -- in a keynote address kicking off the computer show.

The speech, his 20th before Comdex delegates, was somewhat of a departure for Gates, who in past years has used the event as a platform to launch far sexier gadgets, like the Xbox game system and the Tablet PC.

But then, MediaLive International Inc., the San Francisco-based producer of the show, said Comdex 2003 was going to be considerably smaller and better focused. The company has said the event would put more emphasis on delivering business to computer companies and less on the showcasing of gadgets.

Gates adhered to that focus when he made his appearance at what has for years been the nation's premiere computer convention. But this year, Comdex isn't the only game in town.

Jupitermedia Corp., Darien, Conn., and its Jupiter Events subsidiary ignited a new rivalry, opening the first-ever Computer Digital Expo, known as cdXpo, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center this morning. Both Comdex and cdXpo conclude their shows Thursday afternoon.

Juptermedia Chief Executive Alan Meckler predicted Comdex attendees would be disappointed with this year's show and served up an offer to attempt to prove his point: Comdex badge holders will be able to use their credentials to get into cdXpo for free.

Both Comdex and cdXpo opened their respective trade show floors this morning. While the upstart show expects attendance of 7,000, the established event is looking for 50,000 attendees. That's about a quarter of the number that attended the show in 2000 and the estimated 500 exhibitors this year will be a quarter of the more than 2,000 that showed products that year.

The largest Comdex exhibitor will be Microsoft, which has gotten boosts from Gates as a keynote speaker since 1983. In a 75-minute presentation that overflowed the 7,000-seat Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, Gates talked about products addressing issues about which businesses have voiced concerns.

One was the company's SmartScreen Technology, an anti-spam filtering technology to protect e-mail inboxes from unwanted solicitations. Gates also showed the Internet Security and Acceleration Server, a new security technology that enables organizations to move more quickly to apply patches that would protect their networks from viruses and attacks.

"It was a critical move for Mr. Gates to show off the company's security software," said Rob Enderle, whose company has followed Microsoft for 20 years.

"If they don't restore some of the confidence in their products, they'd bleed market share rapidly, said Enderle, the president of the San Jose, Calif.-based Enderle Group. "They've put forth a tremendous amount of effort to address these problems and they're very serious about solving them."

Enderle said the bounty Gates has placed on malicious hackers of Microsoft products is an indication that he's taken the problem personally.

"Security continues to be a top priority for Microsoft," Gates said in his speech. "We are totally focused on creating more secure software and providing tools and technologies that can be easily and quickly deployed to help win the war against malicious code."

The only other major innovation Gates introduced Sunday was a feature called "Stuff I've Seen" which enables a computer user to search simultaneously through e-mail, web-browsing histories, Office documents and other types of files to locate information on machines that are increasingly getting larger storage capacities.

Gates said the innovations are part of the advancement of technology during the "Digital Decade" in which Microsoft has invested $6.8 billion in the current fiscal year in research and development.

"Our vision for seamless computing is both revolutionary and evolutionary," Gates said. "The changes users will see in the technology they use will be gradual, but the difference between the computing experience of today and experiences that will be possible a few years from now will be like night and day."