Is Bill Gates Set To Make A Major Xbox Announcement?

As we move towards the start of the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (set to run from January 7th to January 10th) there are very strong rumours that Bill Gates is looking to go out on a high at what will be his last CES appearance as full time leader of Microsoft.  If the speculation is correct he looks set to announce a major development for the Xbox brand, but what will it be?

There has been talk of an Xbox 360 SKU which will have an in built HD-DVD Player, opening up the product to millions of new consumers.  It also seems as though the company may well announce a licensing deal for their Xbox technology, opening up Microsoft’s exposure to a vast array of DVR/HD-DVD machines of the future.  Like the Windows operating system which put the company on the map, if they were to get in on the ground floor with these new machines and some how ensure that the Xbox technology became the standard of the industry, the sky would literally be the limit.

It seems inevitable that Bill Gates will be looking to go out with a bang as he moves to spend more time on his charitable work and take more of a back seat with the company he helped to create.  While Gates has his critics, there is no doubting that the man knows how to attack markets, he knows how to kill the enemy and he knows how to retain a market share which few others can even think of reaching.

The Xbox was mocked after it was first announced, although with the help of strong financial backing from Microsoft the Xbox has played a major part in the fall of the Sony Playstation.  That is not to say that the Playstation is damaged goods, but it has suffered a major fall back in its market share.  As well as news about the Xbox we should all be bracing ourselves for the unexpected from a man who has made it his mission to keep new ventures and new products tightly under wraps.

While Bill Gates will leave us with an array of memories, do not expect that you have seen the last of the original entrepreneur.  There is no way that this man will sit back and watch life pass him by, he is far too active for that, and seems to like a challenge.