Bill Gates Backs Microsoft's Surface Tablet Solo Venture

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By Kevin Parrish
published

Windows 8 tablets will replace the desktop, says Bill Gates.

Former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates knows exactly why the company seemingly punched its partners in the gut with the introduction of the Windows 8-powered Surface tablet. Even more, he thinks Microsoft has done the right thing by going solo, and that Windows 8 is going to kill the traditional PC. Whoa.

Bill Gates made this revelation on Charlie Rose Monday night as he talked about Microsoft's decision to make its own tablet. As previously reported, Surface will arrive in two flavors: x86-based featuring Windows 8 Pro, and ARM-based using Windows RT. It will feature a unique cover that also serves as a super-thin keyboard, and go head to head with other Windows 8 tablets manufactured by HP, Dell, Asus, Lenovo and others.

"I actually believe you can have the best of both worlds," he said. "You can have a rich eco-system of manufacturers and you can have a few signature devices that show off, wow, what's the difference between a tablet and a PC?"

To Microsoft's defense, Google is taking the same route with its Nexus 7 tablet and the other "Google Experience" tablets planned in the near future. These will be "signature" devices offering the best of what Google has to offer while manufactured by one of its top-tier manufacturers. However these devices will be competing not only with Amazon's Kindle Fire and Apple's iPad, but all the other Android tablets on the market.

As for Bill Gates' vision of the future, he openly admitted that Windows 8 tablets will replace the traditional PCs. Is he right? After all, All-In-One PCs seem to do well in the general consumer market. They're not as thin as tablets, but they're more compact than the traditional desktop and typically sport touchscreens. Maybe it will be this specific sector that tablets while annihilate first.

"You can get everything you like about a tablet, everything you like about a PC, all in one device. That should change the way people look at things," he said.

Kevin Parrish
70 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jcurry23
    I am sorry but I do not want to play pc games on a 10" screen with a touch screen. I want to play pc games on a desk either with a mouse and keyboard or a game pad. If this is true i will miss the desktop pc.
    Reply
  • ahnilated
    My question is who really cares what Bill Gates thinks anymore?
    Reply
  • applegetsmelaid
    The prophet has spoken - in the name of profit.
    Reply
  • kcorp2003
    yes partly true, depending on the demographic. Lets not forget a bulk of hardware sales comes from PC gaming. Unless the future of gaming is holograms and virtual reality then maybe.
    Reply
  • vmem
    jcurry23I am sorry but I do not want to play pc games on a 10" screen with a touch screen. I want to play pc games on a desk either with a mouse and keyboard or a game pad. If this is true i will miss the desktop pc.
    I agree with you 110%. however, the average consumer seem to want gaming to move to "specialized" consoles. desktop PCs is going down the road of becoming a specialty item for geeks/designers/developers
    Reply
  • willard
    jcurry23I am sorry but I do not want to play pc games on a 10" screen with a touch screen. I want to play pc games on a desk either with a mouse and keyboard or a game pad. If this is true i will miss the desktop pc.It's extremely unlikely there will ever be a tablet with a GPU powerful enough to satisfy an enthusiast PC gamer. However, given the plethora of console ports that don't demand much from the hardware (aside from their inefficiencies), it's entirely possible that we'll see future tablets running games that really are comparable to consoles.

    As far as the 10" screen and no mouse, that's what output ports are for.
    Reply
  • kcorp2003
    jcurry23I am sorry but I do not want to play pc games on a 10" screen with a touch screen. I want to play pc games on a desk either with a mouse and keyboard or a game pad. If this is true i will miss the desktop pc.
    unless a tablet that can stream via cloud to bigger screens with outputs for mouse and keyboard on the tablet.
    Reply
  • for gaming the only problem in the future is its screen display and video card. Well today there is already an HDMI output on tablets and in the future we are also going to find the e-pci express.

    There is no limit to progress.
    Reply
  • phamhlam
    willardIt's extremely unlikely there will ever be a tablet with a GPU powerful enough to satisfy an enthusiast PC gamer. However, given the plethora of console ports that don't demand much from the hardware (aside from their inefficiencies), it's entirely possible that we'll see future tablets running games that really are comparable to consoles.As far as the 10" screen and no mouse, that's what output ports are for.
    Have you heard of MSI GUS II? It can hold a pretty decent graphic card and play Battlefield at 1080 on Medium. One day, you can put your GTX 690 into one and be able to do the same thing. This is done through thunderbolt and bandwidth will increase making it easier. Some tablets are including thunderbolt ports for future use.
    Reply
  • killerclick
    Let's not forget Microsoft created the Tablet PC, Zune, Microsoft Bob, Bing, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and other failures. Even if tablets are the future (until Google figures out how to use those stupid glasses for more than taking videos), there is no reason to believe that Microsoft can compete with Apple better than Google can.
    Reply