• The Independent, Tuesday, March 21, 2006 11:15 AM

London's Independent newspaper had an opportunity for a brief interview
with Bill Gates--in New York City, as it happens--in which its
reporter pressed the Microsoft chairman for his thoughts on where media
was going.  He spoke about the migration of advertising to the
Internet, and also the likelihood that print newspapers will manage to
survive for at least another 50 years.  He also said that, eventually,
all media would end up merging--on a tablet.  "In Gates' future
world, paper becomes a thing of the past....  Instead we will carry an
object he calls the tablet, a slim device like a clipboard that will
cater for all our information and entertainment needs and will
revolutionise our lives within a decade. 'The tablet is the place where
it can all come together,' he says. 'I definitely see the tablet,
whether it's textbooks going digital or the newspaper going digital or
magazines going digital, I see the person with that very, very thin, --
we don't have it yet today -- very inexpensive, high-bandwidth, wireless
device... where a lot of the print and video consumption will take
place.'"  According to The Independent, "In this future-world of Gates'
imagination, we will have screens, on the walls of our homes, that will
recognize our voices and take commands. We will be able to take pictures
of barcodes in shops and be informed whether we are being offered a fair
price."  Very interesting future-think piece in today's paper.    

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