Gates: Coke May Stay Market Leader, Microsoft May Not

Bill Gates, chairman of U.S. computer software maker Microsoft, said Friday that 20 years from now Coca-Cola was likely to remain world market leader in soft drinks while his company_s chances of staying at the top were slim. "Twenty years from now...one of the most popular soft drinks in the world, you can say with great certainty is going to be Coca-Cola. Twenty years from now what will the most popular (computer) operating system be?" Gates asked at an information technology seminar here. "It will be so much different than anything anybody thinks today. You won_t recognize it and there is (only a slim) chance that Microsoft can reinvent itself three or four times to be there," he said. In response to a question about his group_s dominant market position, Gates noted that Microsoft was a company employing 30,000 people with sales of about $20 billion."In terms of size, our shadow is bigger than our body," he said, drawing laughter.