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ANDREA FIGLER
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates got bullish on broadband last week, saying that both the PC and the TV industries will need the high-speed communications service in order to successfully sell their next generation of high-tech gadgets.
"We're doing the best we can with the dial-up connection," he said. "But we also have to promote moving up to broadband; that's where video comes in; that's where the best experiences take place. DSL and cable modem are the two ways that's being done today. ... So we need to drive the popularity of that up as we drive the price of it down."
Broadband will help move Microsoft's market dominance from the office to the home, a place Gates' has been planning to target for 25 years, he said.
In a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Gates unveiled his new plan to control all home appliances via the personal computer. Through broadband, the PC will stay on 24 hours a day.
Pictures from a digital camera, for instance, can be transferred through the PC to any digital frame in the house. The personal computer also can send soccer-game reminders to a mom's handheld pocket computer in the den, or program changes to the cable set-top box in the living room. Eventually, through broadband, the PC can start to deliver video-on demand.
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