Gates announces last day at Microsoft

The 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show kicked off Sunday in Las Vegas with the traditional keynote speech from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates...

The Microsoft head spoke about some of the key technologies that will usher in what he described as the “second digital decade” in the coming years. While he said the technology leaps made in the last 10 years have been “amazing” he said the reality is this is only the start. “In many ways, we are at the very beginning of the transformation that software will enable.”

Gates said the next “digital decade” would be an era in which dramatic advances in hardware and software will make the power of computing a ubiquitous part of day-to-day life. Natural user interfaces will more closely reflect the way people interact with each other and high-definition experiences will be nearly everywhere, he said.

He also took time out from his speech to confirm that he will be leaving Microsoft mid-year. “This is my last keynote. It’s the middle of this year, in July, that I’ll move from being a full-time employee at Microsoft to working full-time at the foundation. And I’m not really sure what that last day is going to be like. It could be a bit strange, you know - what do you do on your last day?

8/2/11_ex_h_nl