Software exec says industry 'at cusp' of advancements

WASHINGTON -- In Microsoft's vision of the future, broader acceptance of powerful handheld devices will lead to a steady flow of useful information to consumers no matter where they are.

Microsoft Corp.'s chief technology officer, Craig Mundie, predicts a period of dramatic innovation for the computer industry after more than a year of relatively staid performance.

In a meeting Thursday with reporters and editors from The Associated Press, Mundie hailed agreements by technology companies on a common Internet programming language, along with the increasing popularity of powerful handheld computers and other "intelligent devices." These range from automotive computers to a new tablet-style computer that students and others can use for handwritten notes and research.

"We're right at the cusp," said Mundie, Microsoft's senior vice president for advanced strategies and policies. "You're at the beginning of potentially another major upturn."

The tablet computer that Mundie demonstrated, which will be available in early November from other manufacturers, is similar to a laptop computer with a screen that swivels and folds back flat over the keyboard. Consumers can use a stylus for taking notes that can then be converted to typewritten text.

Mum on development

Mundie, who formerly ran Microsoft's division responsible for software for handheld computers, TVs and automobiles, declined to discuss in any detail Microsoft products or services still secretly under development.

But he described frustration with his current routine of using the Web to check traffic cameras along Seattle roadways, then manually instructing his car's navigation computer to avoid backups.

"You have all these systems that are sort of semi-smart but not talking to each other," he said. "The future will be all about having really sophisticated (programs), myriads of them, that run in these now-intelligent devices and do things on your behalf or in conjunction with your own activities at a much higher level of sophistication."

A consumer could verbally tell his office computer he is ready to leave work. The software would review his schedule for his likely destination, automatically check for traffic delays and transmit a recommended route to his car, Mundie said.

An emerging Internet programming language, known as XML, allows computers to share information from different sources. Mundie called the technology a "lingua franca" for making the Internet a "more-programmable medium."

Windows dependency

Microsoft has been criticized in the past, however, for promoting industry technological standards but then quietly making changes to make them dependent on Windows.

On other issues, Mundie said the online security of the world's computer networks would be improved dramatically if consumers and companies bought the latest versions of Microsoft's Windows software.

Mundie said roughly 300 million computers worldwide run Windows versions that are at least two generations old, produced before Microsoft could anticipate some Internet threats.

Such an upgrade would cost hundreds of dollars for each computer.

"If everybody ran the newest version of Windows, we'd be way better off today," he said. "We have no way to go require businesses or consumers to go ditch their old machines."

Mundie also said Microsoft can't be responsible for use of its software, including data-scrambling technology, by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups; a laptop computer owned by al-Qaida members was running Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system. Mundie, who noted that nearly 400 million computers worldwide use some version of Windows, said the company trains investigators on how its products work.

"I don't think the answer is that we can try to pre-discriminate good uses from bad uses," Mundie said. "You have to put the onus back on the law-enforcement and intelligence people to do their job by whatever means they have, not by telling companies like us that we have to discriminate."