The Players

MICROSOFT

Microsoft's Bill Gates is bullish on his company's prospects for the digital future. At this month's Microsoft sponsored CD-ROM conference, he delivered a keynote address entitled 'Multimedia at Your Fingertips'-and even borrowed John Sculley's term, 'personal digital assistants.' Hardware makers will be looking for software to exploit the power of their machines. Most multimedia machines for the consumer market currently sport the compact Disc Interactive (CD-1) standard pioneered by Philips Electronics, but the real showdown will likely shape up between two computer-software companies: Apple and Microsoft Both companies want to extend the look and fool of their computer software Into the consumer-electronics arena. Each uses a graphical user Interface (GUI, pronounced "gooey"). Both companies are lining up supporters for multimedia, but Microsoft scored big with Its announcement earlier this month that Sony's now CD ROM multimedia player will feature Microsoft's operating system.

Little wonder that Apple Is turning up the heat In court. In a suit that could come to trial this summer, Apple claims that Microsoft ripped off its copyrighted operating system. In creating Windows for IBM-compatible machines. Microsoft has denied the charges-and has produced videotapes documenting programs with similar graphical features that were brought out well before the Macintosh appeared. Microsofts Windows will surpass Apple's Macintosh this year to become the biggest-selling GUI. Apple is asking a hefty $5.5 billion, but the stakes are actually higher. the winner stands to collect vast royalties on the consumer-electronics products that use their standard. Tim Bojarin, president of Creative Strategies in Santa Clara, Calif, says, 'Its a GUI war'-- and It certainly is.

NINTENDO

Open a video game and you find a computer, optimized for fun with special chips for zippy graphics and rich sound. That's a lot like the sort of machines that computer makers are hoping to make for the consumer-electronics market Computer companies such as Apple will be hard pressed to beat video-game companies at their game, says Mike Saenz, founder of Reactor, a Chicago-based entertainment-software company. 'if they think they've got a technology that can compete against the entertainment machines, they've got It wrong.'