Gadgets makers face age-old challenge to keep it simple

LAS VEGAS - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is fond of saying this is the decade that the digital approach to living will be taken for granted.

But only if he can get the thing to work.

A visionary presentation by Gates ran into trouble this week at a big industry gathering when Microsoft product demonstrations broke down completely not once, but twice.

"Right now nine people are being fired -- digitally," quipped comedian Conan O'Brien, who was interviewing Gates before a live audience when both a home entertainment slide show and video game demonstration broke down.

The culprit was the interaction of Microsoft's software with the wireless network of the hotel conference center, according to hotel technicians.

The Gates presentation underscored one of the biggest issues confronting gadget makers at the Consumer Electronics Show: The many devices on display from 2,400 vendors work great, except when they have to work together.

As manufacturers offer more products, choices become more complex. If consumers could settle for the basic Ma Bell telephone or the beige generic PC, no problem would exist.

Even experts get confused. One of Wall Street's most powerful technology analysts visiting the show had trouble working out the distinctions between the two competing brands of wireless service.

The keynote address at the trade show by Intel Corp. Chief Executive Craig Barrett focused on simplifying the digital lifestyle and making media in the home easier to use.

"There are too many options if there are too many 'open standards' or base options to play with," he said.

The battle for the digital home is another example of how more choices have forced consumers to gain more specialised knowledge. As telephone companies prepare to offer video services and cable companies sell phone service, consumers need to figure out more than a simple remote control.

For cable and phone companies, the challenge is to combine services in a way that keeps it simple.

"The guy that can integrate it the best is the guy who is going to win the consumer over time," said Randall Stephenson, chief operating officer of SBC Communications. SBC is planning a television-over-Internet service that would be paired with its traditional voice and data services.

Regulators have given up trying to keep pace with all the changes taking place in the industry, believing that staying out of the way is more helpful, US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said in a speech here.

Powell predicted that the distinctions that separate telephone, cable television, internet and satellite services providers will disappear in coming years.

People will one day have a hard time remembering the distinction between phone company SBC and cable TV giant Comcast, he said. "In a pretty short amount of time, there is going to be only the most modest difference between different communication carriers," Powell declared.

- REUTERS