| Highlights (and transcript) of BIll Gates talk at Mobile DevCon |
Mar. 26, 2004
 In his keynote address at the co-located Microsoft Mobile Developer Conference (DevCon) 2004, VSLive! and AVIOS~SpeechTEK Spring 2004, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates described Microsoft's vision for seamless computing, discussing a wave of technologies that enable connected, information-driven applications, and "rich" interfaces and experiences. Additionally, Gates unveiled Speech Server 2004 and Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software, and highlighted the MapPoint Location Server software and the Visual Studio 2005 Community Technology Preview program.
Gates emphasized the importance of the role of developers, saying: "The developer community is the catalyst that takes Seamless Computing from vision to reality. Microsoft remains committed to enabling software developers to create the applications and services that will shape the future of computing."
Gates talked about the new market opportunities that are enabled by natural user interfaces, and articulated Microsoft's vision that speech technology is a key component of Seamless Computing. During his talk, Gates officially launched Microsoft Speech Server 2004, which Microsoft describes as a flexible, integrated speech product that dramatically reduces the complexity and cost of developing and deploying speech applications by integrating speech development into Visual Studio .NET. A demonstration showed the capability of Speech Server 2004 to easily speech-enable an existing ASP.NET Web applications, making it accessable from the existing 2.2 billion worldwide installed base of telephones and mobile phones, as well as from Windows Mobile based Pocket PCs and Smartphones, for mixed speech and visual interactions.
Gates also announced the Community Technology Previews for Visual Studio 2005 (formerly code-named "Whidbey"). Community Technology Previews give Visual Studio customers access to "interim builds" of Visual Studio — prerelease versions of the product that fall between the major beta releases. The Community Technology Preview program is intended to enable developers to work with Visual Studio 2005 as it is being developed, so that they can provide feedback prior to its release, helping improve the quality of the product as it evolves.
Gates emphasized the current strength and value of the Visual Studio .NET and .NET Framework ecosystem for customers and partners, highlighting the distribution of more than 80 million copies of the .NET Framework, the 2.5 million developers currently using Visual Studio .NET, the more than 180 Visual Studio Industry Partners, and the more than 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies that are run on the .NET Framework.
Gates encouraged developers to apply their existing skills to mobile development and pointed out that the mobile industry is at an inflection point, with rich software and technology meeting exciting hardware innovation and new market opportunities. Gates officially launched the next version of Windows Mobile, "Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition," and briefly listed its new features. Then, he showcased the new Motorola MPx (shown in the photo at right), a Pocket PC based on Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, and demonstrated the MPx's ability to dynamically adjust its display from portrait to landscape mode (a feature of Windows Mobile 2003 SE), by folding the MPx up from one display mode (using one of its dual hinges) and opening it up into the other display mode (using the other hinge).
 
The dual-hinged Mpx converts from portrait mode to landscape mode
(Click each image to enlarge)
Gates stressed that there is now an addressable mobile marketplace, and urged developers to begin investing in this new area, with an eye to future opportunity. A future-looking demonstration illustrated this opportunity and where Microsoft's mobile developer strategy and investments are headed -- an end-to-end solution for mobile developers that spans application development, testing, and market distribution to end users, utilizing the highly productive Visual Studio integrated development environment.
Gates also noted that the launch of the MapPoint Location Server (MLS) earlier in the week presents an immediate opportunity for developers to build rich location-based services into the mobile experiences they are creating. MLS enables corporate developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to easily incorporate real-time location into a wide range of applications including fleet management, asset tracking, dispatch, and mobile customer relationship management, through the combination of real-time location data from mobile operators with mapping capabilities from the Microsoft MapPoint Web Service.
Transcript and presentation
Wish you could have had a front-row seat at Gates's DevCon keynote talk?
You can read the full transcript here, and download the powerpoint presentation slides here (18.1 MB ppt file).
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