display on TV screens yet, although that will change.Overall, however, the tradeoffs for the set-top box look pretty good, especially considering that TVs hooked to the Internet could allow people from every economic sphere to enjoy the Internet's benefits. Keep in mind, though, that communications charges will mount up in the long run.Game machines and consumer-electronics devices, such as some of the forthcoming Digital Video Disk (DVD) Players, will connect to the Internet, using a slender cousin of Windows as the operating system. We'll see an explosion of interest in multi-player games, where the contestants meet only in cyberspace.Hardware companies will begin selling handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) that rely on another cousin of Windows. These miniature information appliances will have LCD screens and connect wirelessly to desktop machines and networks, including two-way pager networks. Because these networks will, in turn, tie into the Internet, you'll be able to use the PDAs to browse the web or exchange e-mail. Over time, PDAs will evolve into what I like to call I-Wallet PC-in-one pocket-sized devices that will serve as personal communicators, maps, guide books, repositories of digital money and credit information, identification, tickets, and so forth.It's clear that a number of information appliances are going to become common in homes as well as in our pockets, and that these devices can't all be expensive. Keeping costs down is a priority, but people won't settle for underpowered tools.The Internet era is a challenge and an opportunity for every person and for most companies. It certainly is for Microsoft. We've had a lot of challenges in the past 20 years, but this one happens to be great fun.Recently, 35 leading American research universities and the Federal government have contributed $300 million to establish a new Internet for research, one that is much faster than the present networks and will be able to...
