Nothing up my sleeve...
November 12, 2001: 7:32 p.m. ET
Microsoft and Cisco use Comdex to pitch new initiatives -- and draw attention away from slowing core businesses.
MONEY columnist David Futrelle
money.cnn.com
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - At Comdex in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft chair Bill Gates and Cisco CEO John Chambers seemed to be playing a game of three-card monte. Like card sharks well versed in the art of distraction, both execs used their Comdex keynote addresses to draw attention away from their companies' stagnating "mature" businesses -- Windows software and routers, respectively -- and toward adolescent initiatives that both execs hope will be able to deliver the zippy growth that investors seem to expect.
In his Sunday night keynote address, Microsoft chair Bill Gates highlighted two new gizmos that he hopes will get consumers and investors as excited as a spastically dancing Steve Ballmer: the much-touted Xbox video game console, scheduled for release later this week, and a little something called the tablet PC, scheduled for release sometime next year. It's not hard to see why Microsoft feels it needs to do something: The PC business, which Microsoft has traditionally relied on to drive the bulk of its revenues, has hit a bad patch, with PC sales expected to post their first ever decline this year -- and their second-ever decline next year. The company's hepped-up, super-stable Windows XP operating system has garnered some decent reviews, but it isn't inspiring a sudden rush on PCs, and even if PC demand starts to pick up sometime next year, it's not likely to pick up much. |
