Microsoft gathered 100 chief executive officers together at its
Redmond, Washington USA compound for two days, to present its
predictions on the future of Web-based computing and tell them
about new technologies in the pipeline.
The company's sixth annual CEO Summit saw business leaders from
industries as diverse as finance, manufacturing and retail, gather
to hear the software vendor discuss new technologies and
productivity tools that it says will revitalise the business
workplace.
Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates
delivered an opening speech highlighting the role technology can
play in boosting efficiency and productivity, even as companies
grapple with the continued economic slowdown.
He cited examples such as speech recognition, which allows users to
interact with computers in a more familiar way. Similarly,
Microsoft's recent "Trustworthy Computing" initiative, he said,
aims to create a computing infrastructure that users can depend on
for steady, secure access to the Internet.
Gates also showed off a futuristic PC workstation equipped with a
panoramic display and extolled the virtues of its Web-based
computing platform, .net. He told the CEOs that they should
continue investing in these kinds of technologies to achieve
long-term cost savings.
Microsoft called its annual summit the next-best thing to the World
Economic Forum, a high profile gathering of the rich and
powerful.
The CEOs were provided with test versions of Tablet PCs, which they
were able to use during the conference. The slim, portable
computers, which run a special edition of Windows XP Professional,
have a display on which users can sketch notes using a stylus pen
and Microsoft's handwriting software.
The devices were prototypes from hardware maker Acer, Microsoft
said. The Acer Tablet PCs are equipped with smart card readers used
for authentication as well as wireless networking technology for
checking e-mail and taking part in interactive surveys, Microsoft
said.