Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 3, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
At his first appearance before a large trade-show audience in Las Vegas in 1983, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates still relied on his father’s assistance. For the announcement of the first version of Windows at the Comdex computer show, William H. Gates Sr. personally stood at the projector to change the slides for his son’s speech. Presentation programs such as PowerPoint or a projector for connection to the PC did not yet exist at the time. A quarter of a century later, the big curtain of a high-tech trade show in Las Vegas will open for Bill Gates for the last time at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). In the coming months, the multi-billionaire will withdraw completely from his leadership role at Microsoft to concentrate in future on his work as a philanthropist in the «Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation».
Over the past decades, the glittering world of the desert city in the US state of Nevada repeatedly offered Gates the stage for important announcements. After the presentation of Windows 1.0, his appearance at the Aladdin Hotel on November 12, 1994 stood out above all. At that time, the software tycoon formulated his vision of ubiquitous information («Information At Your Fingertips») for the first time. With the aid of a short crime thriller played on the giant screen in the Aladdin Theatre, Gates illustrated how the personal computer would permanently influence private and professional life. And the overwhelming market success of Windows 95 in the following years confirmed the Microsoft chief’s thesis.
At Comdex 2001, Gates went one step further and announced a «digital decade»: «In this digital decade, computer technology will change every part of our lives and fulfil the promise of the truly secure and truly personal computer.» Gates was not wrong with this prediction at the time either. However, in the years that followed, companies such as Google and Apple proved to be the driving forces in implementing the «digital lifestyle», while Microsoft missed important trends such as Internet advertising and the iPod boom.
For Bill Gates’ farewell performance in Las Vegas next Sunday, Microsoft faces new challenges: The Windows Vista operating system has not yet met the expectations that Gates himself placed in the new system software. Business customers in particular mourn the proven Windows XP. In addition, Microsoft is being confronted there with the «Software as a service» business model, in which companies such as Salesforce.com provide programs as a service via the Web. Under the motto «Software plus Service», Microsoft is now attempting to counter. Things are not going as planned in the mobile communications market either: Contrary to Gates’ assessment, Google entered this segment massively a few weeks ago and, with its new «Android» mobile-phone software, threatens the rise of Microsoft’s «Windows Mobile» system.
The answers from Microsoft to these challenges is no longer to be formulated by Bill Gates. After he had already handed over his post as company chief to his long-time colleague Steve Ballmer in January 2000, Gates will withdraw almost completely from Microsoft by the summer of 2008. Two experienced technology experts are to fill the gigantic gap: Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie. Mundie, a Microsoft veteran, now holds the title «Chief Research and Strategy Officer». Ozzie, who once invented the «Lotus Notes» system, did not come to Microsoft until 2005 with the takeover of his company Groove Networks. He took over Gates’ role as Microsoft’s «Chief Software Architect».
It is not yet apparent which of the two software strategists will take on the role of Microsoft’s figurehead. In recent months, neither Mundie nor Ozzie dared emerge from the shadow of the larger-than-life Bill Gates. What is clear, however, is that CES will have to find a new opening speaker in 2009, because Gates will no longer be available. «They could still invite me, but I’m not sure whether they really want that, because I would mainly talk about infectuous diseases – and not about great software,» the Microsoft chairman told the CES organisers a year ago.
