Microsoft is investing big bucks to develop systems that may soon give computers the ability to recognize and understand human conversation, said chairman Bill Gates. He predicted that a decade from now personal computers would be able not only to recognize speech, but to understand it as humans do when they are conversing with each other.
"I'd be so bold as to say that 10 years from now every personal computer will have seeing, listening, and learning [capabilities]," Gates said in a speech Monday to the CA-World 1998 technology conference. "We [Microsoft] in the last eight years have increased our pure research spending by a factor of 10. Today, it's a very substantial investment on our part, and that's aimed at building computers that see, listen, and learn."
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The good times roll at IBM: With IBM's finances on firm footing and its stock price near an all-time high, chairman and chief executive Louis Gerstner has a freer hand than at any time since he took on the task of reshaping the giant computer company in 1993. As a result, many on Wall Street think Gerstner will take the offensive in outlining the next chapter of his vision for IBM when he addresses the company's annual meeting today. He is expected to focus on growth and market leadership, rather than cost-controls and restructurings.
The company said on Tuesday that its directors have approved a US$3.5 billion stock repurchase program and raised the quarterly dividend on common stock by 10 percent. The quarterly dividend was increased to 22 cents a share from 20 cents, effective with the 10 June payment to shareholders of record 8 May. Including this rise, IBM said, its dividend has increased 76 percent since 1996.
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Slow semiconductor growth: The worldwide semiconductor market is expected to grow a moderate 8 percent in 1998, but will return to double-digit growth in 1999, research firm Dataquest said on Tuesday.
"The Asian financial crisis, low DRAM pricing and DRAM overcapacity, and the general overcapacity and pricing pressures that exist in other product segments will hamper semiconductor revenue growth this year," said Joe Grenier, director of Dataquest's semiconductor programs. (DRAM stands for Dynamic Random Access Memory and is a stand-in term for semiconductor chips.)
Dataquest said revenues from the sale of semiconductors this year are projected to reach $159 billion. But the global semiconductor industry will return to strong growth in 1999, it said, when the market is forecast to grow 18 percent with revenue surpassing $188 billion.
