靠组配个人电脑发家的比尔盖茨日前预测，键盘和鼠标将很快退出历史舞台。
The founder of Microsoft Corp used his swansong to the technology industry on Sunday to spell out a vision of a “digital decade” of telephones, televisions and cars that respond to voice and touch.
微软集团的这位创始人在本周日的退台演说中展望，由集成声控、触控功能的电话、电视以及汽车的“数字时代”即将到来。
“This is the area that people underestimate the most,” he said. Mr Gates, who plans to retire from day-to-day operations at Microsoft in July to oversee his $37 billion (£18 billion) charitable foundation, gave a keynote address to a packed 3,500-seat Las Vegas ballroom at the world’s largest consumer electronics show.
“人们大大低估了这个领域。”他在消费电子展览会的基调演说中谈道。本次盛会在拉斯维加斯举行，全场3500个座位座无虚席。盖茨先生计划在七月退出微软日常事务，从而主要负责监管他累积370万美元（180亿英镑）的慈善基金。
He predicted that high-definition video “will be everywhere” from TV to wall projections to screens built into desks. Users will be able to roam in 3-D through virtual worlds when they shop or interact online with friends. Devices will connect seamlessly so that data is transferred automatically from computer to mobile phone, for instance. “When you take a photo, it will show up where you want it to show up,” he said.
据他预测，不论是电视、大屏幕投影墙还是桌面嵌入屏幕，高清晰度视频将会出现在任何地方。用户可以在和朋友网上购物、互动时通过3-d技术畅游虚拟世界；各种设备将配合得天衣无缝，数据可以在电脑、移动电话等等之间自由转换。“你拍了一张照片，它就能展示在任何你想得到的地方。”
The software billionaire has used the annual Consumer Electronics Show to unveil products such as the Windows operating system and the Xbox 360 game console. But his visionary predictions have not always led to commercial success, as in the case of the touch-screen tablet computer.
这位软件业大亨曾利用一年一度的消费电子盛会中成功地推出了视窗操作系统和XBox360游戏控制器等产品。但并不是每一次盖茨的梦幻预测都能转换成商业利润，就比如他的触控平板电脑设想，就没有获得成功。
In contrast, Apple Inc’s touch-screen iPhone and Nintendo’s Wii motion-sensing video game, which allows players to connect wirelessly to the screen, have won popular acclaim.
相比之下，苹果公司的触控电子产品iPhone和任天堂的Wii传感游戏控制手柄（玩家可以通过手柄无线操控屏幕界面）却获得了巨大的成功。
Providing a glimpse into the future, Mr Gates demonstrated a device called a Microsoft Surface that embeds a computer in a table top, showing how he could customise a snow-board in a shop. Just by running his fingers over the counter, he designed a snowboard with different colours and patterns. When he was happy with the result, he placed his mobile phone on the surface. The counter-top computer recognised the phone and wirelessly downloaded the design to the web.
展望未来，盖茨通过一台嵌入桌面的微软的新产品“Microsoft Surface”来展示他在一家网络商店订制一架滑雪板的过程。他满意地设计出了不同颜色和花纹的滑雪板，并把自己的手机放在了机器上。工作站自动识别出手机，并从网上无线下载了滑雪板的设计图。
Mr Gates’s presentation was met by some scepticism because of Microsoft’s failure to unveil any big new innovations at the show.
鉴于微软公司在消费电子盛会上推出重大革新时屡屡失败，盖茨先生的演讲也遭到了不少质疑。
“Part of this has to do with Microsoft being tired of announcing new stuff that doesn’t ever materialise or shows up in a form very different than what was shown,” Michael Gartenberg, a Jupiter Research analyst, wrote in a web posting.
Jupiter Research的分析师Michael Gartenberg在一篇网络日志中谈到，微软遭到质疑，“一部分是由于微软公司总是做出的新产品往往跟以往产品没有多少不同。”
以下为“比尔·盖茨在微软的最后一天”视频