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Speaking to staff and students at Carnegie Mellon University, Gates reiterated his long stated belief that computer users will soon be abandoning their keyboards in favour of speech recognition and touchscreen technologies.

The development of new interface technologies has been a common theme of Gates' over the years, though his predictions have so far proved somewhat ambitious.

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"In this 10-year time frame, I believe we will have perfected speech recognition and speech output well enough that those will become a standard part of the interface," he said during a keynote in 1997.

However, speaking at Carnegie Mellon he went on to describe the development of speech and touch technology as "one of the big bets we're making," referring initially to Microsoft's rollout of Surface technology last year.

Surface comprises of a 30in touchscreen laid horizontally as a table top. The device is expected to sell for between $5,000 and $10,000, although cheaper consumer models are in development.

Gates is due to step down from day to day work at Microsoft in July 2008, although he will remain in position as chairman. Gates' talk at Carnegie Mellon was part of his final tour of speeches before the transition.