Folks have been talking about the coming convergence between PCs and consumer electronics for years. But that was the easy part.
The hard call was to figure out exactly how the pieces would fall into place. Although the debate goes on, one person who thinks that the technology industry is on the cusp of realizing one of its longest-sought grails is Bill Gates.
Gates, who took the stage Wednesday night to deliver the opening key note at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is convinced that recent technology advances have paved the way toward real convergence. CNET News.com caught up with Microsoft"s co-founder and chairman to find out what"s behind his optimism.
Q: How close do you think the technology industry as a whole is toward achieving an era of real convergence?
A: Convergence doesn"t happen until you have everything in a digital form that the consumer can easily use on all the different devices. So, if we look at the three types of media of greatest importance--we look at photos, we look at music and we look at video--the move toward giving people digital flexibility on them is pretty incredible on every one of them. It"s been discussed for a long, long time. And now, it"s really happening.