Digital Bits: Bill Gates quiet on HD DVD at CES keynote presentation

[radagast]

"Well... the Microsoft counterstrike for HD-DVD never materialized this evening. I spent a couple hours waiting in line to get into Bill Gates' big CES opening keynote presentation, and it ended up as much ado about nothing with respect to the format war at least. The house was packed as you'd expect, but not a single time in the entire hour did Gates or his associates mention the HD-DVD format, which is interesting, because VERY reliable sources had informed us that, prior to Warner's Friday announcement, as much as 30 percent of the presentation was originally devoted to HD-DVD developments connected to the Xbox, Xbox Live, etc. Neither did Gates announce any kind of ultimate Xbox 360 with a built-in HD-DVD drive, though he did reveal that British Telecom and other CE companies will be partnering with Microsoft on Xbox-based media devices.


...I hadn't been to one of Gates' keynotes before, and this was apparently his last (as he's stepping down from his role at Microsoft to get more involved with his foundation), but it was largely geared toward hard-selling Microsoft products and services with the help of various celebrity appearances, video clips, etc. Bill is nothing if not the ultimate software guy - a 21st century Barnum. But again, there was not a single mention of HD-DVD.

One last note this evening: That idea I floated yesterday, that the BDA should offer an olive branch to HD-DVD consumers? I mentioned it to senior BDA executives this evening, and I think you can safely say that they're going to move forward with something along these very lines in the weeks ahead. We'll post more when we can, but the idea was definitely warmly received. In fact, plans are already in the works. We'll post more on this as things develop."


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