Saturday, February 9, 2002
Bits of Gates visit
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "NEWS" @ 03:33 AM
http://www.afxpress.com/afxpress2/afx/story_34957.xml.html
During the past week Gates visited Stockholm to release Visual Studio.NET and be awared his Honorary Doctorate of Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).
Swedish media, national TV, radio and papers, covered his visit extensively and the press conference was broadcasted a number of times.
These are some bits that got stuck in my head:
- VS.NET took three years to complete. The longest development time in the history of the company.
- Nokia is a dangerous competitor. He said: "It is said that their headquarters is called Powerpoint Palace after all the slides they make."
- Nokia is a partner. He mentioned the SIM technologies, tablet PCs and driving traffic in 3G networks. "cooperation with Nokia has been confined to industry standards to date.". That means they are not the best of friends...
- Lots of talking with Ericsson. I guess that is all there ever will be with this company; talking. Bill says: "They've (Ericsson) taken the handset operation and put that into another joint venture, (Sony-Ericsson) and we're talking to those people as well." Talking.
- Smartphones, Pocket PCs and Tablet PCs was mentioned over and over again. He even pulled out a Pocket PC Phone Edition from his pocket during the press conference.
I am glad to see that "mobile" is on Gates' mind. I'd be worried otherwise. Head to head with Nokia without the big boys backing up, won't lead anywhere. This year is extremely important for Microsoft; new Pocket PCs w integrated telephony and Smartphone 2002s. The software in these devices kicks competition's butt big time, but if device manufactures are reluctant to license, then Microsoft won't be able to move any devices at all. Without device manufacturers, no access to mobile operators and their networks. To be more specific; no success without Sony-Ericsson, Nokia and/or Motorola.
During the past week Gates visited Stockholm to release Visual Studio.NET and be awared his Honorary Doctorate of Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).
Swedish media, national TV, radio and papers, covered his visit extensively and the press conference was broadcasted a number of times.
These are some bits that got stuck in my head:
- VS.NET took three years to complete. The longest development time in the history of the company.
- Nokia is a dangerous competitor. He said: "It is said that their headquarters is called Powerpoint Palace after all the slides they make."
- Nokia is a partner. He mentioned the SIM technologies, tablet PCs and driving traffic in 3G networks. "cooperation with Nokia has been confined to industry standards to date.". That means they are not the best of friends...
- Lots of talking with Ericsson. I guess that is all there ever will be with this company; talking. Bill says: "They've (Ericsson) taken the handset operation and put that into another joint venture, (Sony-Ericsson) and we're talking to those people as well." Talking.
- Smartphones, Pocket PCs and Tablet PCs was mentioned over and over again. He even pulled out a Pocket PC Phone Edition from his pocket during the press conference.
I am glad to see that "mobile" is on Gates' mind. I'd be worried otherwise. Head to head with Nokia without the big boys backing up, won't lead anywhere. This year is extremely important for Microsoft; new Pocket PCs w integrated telephony and Smartphone 2002s. The software in these devices kicks competition's butt big time, but if device manufactures are reluctant to license, then Microsoft won't be able to move any devices at all. Without device manufacturers, no access to mobile operators and their networks. To be more specific; no success without Sony-Ericsson, Nokia and/or Motorola.
