November 21, 1995

IN NEW BOOK, GATES SAYS INFO HIGHWAY WILL CREATE WORLD 'DEPARTMENT STORE'

NEW YORK (AP) -- Microsoft Corp.'s founder Bill Gates sees a world in which the information highway will be a combination town square and "world's central department store."

"It will be where we social animals will sell, trade, invest, haggle, pick stuff up, argue, meet new people, and hang out," Gates wrote in his long-awaited book, "The Road Ahead."

"All the goods for sale in the world will be available for you to examine, compare, and often, customize," Gates said. "When you want something you'll be able to tell your computer to find it for you at the best price offered by any acceptable source or ask your computer to 'haggle' with the computers of various sellers."

Excerpts from Gates' book were published in the Nov. 27 issue of Newsweek magazine, on sale today, and in the Sunday Times of London.

Gates also said the coming information revolution will help businesses improve productivity, but many workers will suffer because it will promote a leaner corporate world and prompt layoffs, Gates says.

"Lots of companies will eventually be far smaller because using the information highway will make it easy to find and work with outside resources," he wrote.

The breakdown of boundaries through the information highway will diminish the gap between the have and have-not nations, he predicted, "but developed countries and their workers will still maintain a sizable lead."

"The net effect will be a wealthier world, which should be stabilizing," the billionaire chairman of Microsoft wrote.

The book by Gates, the country's richest man, is being marketed with an arsenal of high-tech gadgets, including a companion CD-ROM containing links to information on the Internet.

Publisher Viking originally planned to print 500,000 advance copies, but demand from booksellers bumped the number up to 800,000.

The CD-ROM, which is included in the hardback's $29.95 cost, comes with video clips of Gates' speeches and other multimedia information, including a tour of the elaborate home he is building in Medina, Wash.

Gates warned the government against attempting to design or dictate the nature of the information highway.

"We are watching something historic happen, and it will affect the world seismically, the same way the scientific method, the invention of printing, and the arrival of the Industrial Age did. Big changes used to take generations or centuries. This one won't happen overnight, but it will move much faster."

Gates predicted that future technology will enable people to customize movies and news, give up paper currency and play bridge with faraway friends.

"The highway will enable capabilities that seem magical when they are described, but represent a technology at work to make our lives easier and better," he wrote.

A wallet-size personal computer will eliminate such things as airline tickets and keys. As you pass through an airport gate, for example, the wallet PC will connect to the airport's computers and verify that you have paid for a ticket.

"You'll be able to listen to any song, any time, anywhere, piped in from the world's largest record store: the information highway," Gates wrote.

"Or you'll watch "Gone With The Wind' with your own face and voice replacing that of Vivien Leigh or Clark Gable. Or see yourself walking down the catwalk at a fashion show, wearing the latest Paris creations adjusted to fit your body -- or the one you wish you had."