When Gates meets Jobs

The theme for the Gates-Jobs meet, which is scheduled this week is the future, and as of today they are both approaching it from different angles, and increasingly, competing in the same market segments, from PC’s to operating systems, music and video players, mobile phones and mobile operating systems, media centers, interface design, physical design and other IP.

Both are highly successful and intelligent men, and although the event is billed as unscripted, they would naturally have thought about what they would say when facing each other on stage, being simultaneously interviewed before an audience of tech-savvy, influential people, all keen to hear what two of the IT industry’s most powerful players have to say on the future of the information technology we all use and mostly love every day.

I certainly hope for and expect a riveting discussion, guided by two of the industry’s most seasoned technology journalists. Whatever happens, there’s high anticipation that the interview will be powerful and memorable.

The rest of the conference will also be feature packed. Steve Jobs will also host his own session during the conference, where he could talk about the iPhone, Mac OS X 10.5, DRM, convergence, the future and more, setting a precedent for something special.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer will also have his own session, where he will talk about Windows, Office, the Xbox, Zune, and other topics.

Given that the next 20 to 30 years is supposed to see more technological advance than the last 2000 years put together, as long as we don’t blow ourselves up through nuclear or environmental catastrophe first, let’s hope there are some more solid signs of that future at the conference that promises all things digital.