the war for the tablet is over. apple won. the nicext battle is in your ca. microsoft has a head start. microsoft's steven bridgeland is my guest this morning. plus, all kinds of great ideas never make it to the invention stage. edison nations, lewis foreman wants to help. our reporters, the bc's maggy shields and rich jaroslavski, from bloomberg this week on "press: here." good morning, everyone in silicon valley wants to figure out what the next big thing will be. but perhaps no organization has

more at stage in figuring that out than microsoft. microsoft made its fortunes selling the windows operating system for traditional pcs, but traditional pcs, desk tops and laptops have fallen out of favor with consumers. it's safe to say microsoft did not make the transition to tablets very well. apple's software powers most tabl tablets, a few run on android. microsoft is fighting for market share on cell phones, but has captured just a sliver of that market. so what's left? cars. microsoft leads the way on the automotive platform. notably, with the ford sync, a voice command car computer system that can tell you the traffic and manage phone calls. show you weather radar, find a track on your ipod, point you to the nearest gas station, and

tell you how much the gas will cost you before you get there. steven bridgeland is senior product manager at windows embedded automotive. he said, all day i think about cars. >> i certainly do. >> lots of little boys do, you get paid for it. joined by rich from bloomberg "business week," maggie shields of the bbc. i'm going to come right and say it i own a ford, i have the computer in the car. and i, am convinced that once people begin to use these things on a common basis, and this is more than just a little trip computer or telling me, gives me the gas mileage, it is something they will demand. and i'm assuming that you're going to agree with me on that. >> i agree with you 100%, as a matter of fact, that's something that ford has discovered as well. they've done research that shows that 80% of the people that have a demo of ford sync, want it and are ready to buy it. >> it's a computer with some wheels on it that can you drive around. >> it makes your driving around

a lot more productive. a lot more fun. it allows you to do hands-free phone. it allows you to play your ipod or zune music or be able to do voice control. do things like play led zeppe n zeppelin. >> what about the distracted driver issue, because we're not very good at multitasking, you're in the car and this is a hulk of metal that kills people. >> i agree. and what you need to do is do as few things as possible to distract the driver. i think that's one of the things that ford has done incredibly well is to integrate voice control. as you keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, press a button and say press led zeppelin, as opposed to looking at the radio or picking up your phone and dial a number. you can say call mom at home. >> i'm curious about the generational aspect to it. it seems to me that while younger consumers, younger car buyers, you know, sort of have grown up with the technology. that there's a whole generation of car buyers that must be sitting in front of the steering wheel going -- ha is this?

>> that's very true. as a matter of fact the for the sync has been extremely well adopted by the first-time car buyers, the younger generation. a lot of dealerships go through a quick training session. once you've plugged your ipod in. it's a few simple commands and you can do awful these things. >> there is a difference between kind of the first-generation car computers, bmw had one early and honda had one early and this, and that is there's nothing in the car you can't do where you're forced to use the computer. i know with bmw, just to turn the air conditioning off, you had to access the right screen and do that sort of thing. the buttons still exist. but there's an added -- i want to go back to the safety issue, though. yes, you can tell your car to play led zeppelin, and it will do it by voice. but the more cool things you add to while away the time while i

drive, are almost by definition, distraction. >> are there things in which your engineers have said, you know what we could could do? and you know, somebody said, that's too much, the car should not be able to do that. >> absolutely. a great example is, and i hate to bring it up here is, play tv while you're driving. you would never want to play tv. except there's country where you can. i was in korea, ways in a cab, as the cab driver was driving, he turned on a tv broadcast so he could have it while he was driving. i asked him, aren't you worried about this? and he said, no, as a matter of fact i wouldn't buy one of these unless i could watch tv while i'm driving. >> the thing i think would be distracting is you can answer this yourself, scott, but email. doing email while you're in the car. because that does require a certain amount of concentration. okay, you can do everything by voice. but i just think that you would end up kind of concentrating on ha you're saying in the email instead of watching the road. >> well, that is true and right

now we don't allow you to reply to emails. >> you can receive it. >> yes, but you cannot reply. that's more frustrating. >> we've added in a new platform, which isn't in cars yet, the ability to reply via text messages and since text messages are short anyway -- >> you mean by voice. >> voice-created text messages. >> you can press a button and say, i'm running late, 30 minutes. >> a devil's advocate would say -- even if that is distracting, it's less distracting than texting the text. >> i think it all plays into what google are doing with their driverless cars, so you can be hands free and concentrate on other tasks while the car needs to do to get you from a to b. >> driverless cars have huge hurdles to overcome. trying to convince people to let them on the road. i'm a huge proponent of the driverless car. >> maggie brought up google. am i right in thinking that microsoft has a jump on this?

you have deals with kia, you have deals with ford, an enormous car manufacturer. in which you're learning faster than other companies that have not gotten into this space yet. >> absolutely. we've been in this market for 15 years. we started with the auto pc, bill gates was one of the people who believed this vision of computer in the car. we've learned an enormous amount on what drivers need, what car manufacturers need. how to really interact. working with the suppliers as well as car makers. i do think we have a huge lead. and google doesn't have a commitment into the automotive industry, as far as i can tell. >> there's the wonderful phrase, the internet of moving things. and one of the things that i wonder is, what is it that the system can do for me that i don't have to interact with? what behind-the-scenes sorts of things are you able to provide? >> things like with the ford sync, we have sync services where you can just tell it, tell me the box scores for, and i'll use seattle terms, the seattle seahawks, i want to know what's

going on, i want to know with the mariners, i want to know what the traffic is let me know, so i don't have to spend time finding it. >> how much of a lock do you have on the car manufacturers? you talk about you know, being in partnership with ford for you've been in the space for 15 years, a long partnership with ford. last week at google's developer conference, they showed off what they're doing with ford. and i think we're going to get to the stage whereby you can go buy your ford car. but who do you want to do your software inside? is it microsoft? is it google? that's going to become quite competitive. >> i think it's possible. although with a car manufacturer, they want to have control over what's in their car. >> very early on in the process? >> they want to make sure that they're not having driver distraction. that they don't have the, the flat lent noise application on the system, et cetera. >> you must be worried that google is starting to breathe down your neck on this. if you look at driverless cars and you look at them doing what they're doing with ford. telling you about traffic jams,

giving you alternative routes to get round traffic problems, that kind of thing. >> microsoft has been in this market a while, we're excited that google is in this market. >> that's a stock answer. >> maybe. i'm not concerned, let's put it this way. >> google, and also apple. and that is the sense that my apple iphone is already a computer that comes into the car. and you work, thank you for working so well with apple. with apple ipods, but there are lots of people who take their apple and stick it up on the windshield. i have apps, i have pandora, going bluetooth to my car stereo, et cetera. so your biggest sales barrier would be,i an iphone. >> absolutely. there are a lot of people that that's good enough. iphone is designed to be able to focus on and use and spend your time looking at. which is the exact opposite of what you want in a car. a lot of people say i already

have it, i'll just use the nav, i'll ignore it when text messages come in. i have nieces, i know that's not true. >> steve bridgeland is with microsoft. we'll talk more when "press: here" comes right back.

we're talking with steven bridgeland about cars in computers, steven is with microsoft. microsoft would like to stand d standardize most things, but cars are not standardized. you supply kia, supply ford. each one's different. why would i get into a computer-equipped car do i not think, i know this, i've seen this before? >> it's a great question. most car manufacturers want their car to be unique. so what we do is we provide a platform that they can build their own user interface on top of. so they can make tradeoffs on, this is important that we think for our market and our car, and another car maker can do the

same as well. >> do you guide their user interface at all? >> car makers are good at user interface, otherwise they wouldn't bible to make cars. >> we provide samples, but we find car makers are protective of their user interface, and how they want to wrk with their consumers, because they understand them far better than we could. >> can i go to the dark side. it's the issue of privacy, there you are in your car, inputting all this information, where you're going, where you've been. which is the crucial thing. you might have your wife saying, you said you were xyz, how come you were late? or, yeah, you know, the cops might come to say -- can you prove where you were at certain time and all this kind of stuff. so what about the accessing of records and that kind of information that you would put into that computer in the car? >> that's a great question. actually we haven't really designed a way to make it easy to access and get that information. and i know that the car companies like ford really want to keep that privacy private.

so they're going to make sure that those things are locked down as well. >> at some point in the future will we instead of turning on the car, will we be logging into the car. >> absolutely, you log into your car when you get into your car. >> it takes a second to boot up. i do have that gripe. >> it syncs with your phone, it knows where you are, it knows if you've added a few new contacts. it knows all of those things just by getting into your car. >> obviously you're bringing in traffic information and bringing in certain information sources. what other kinds of information could you bring into me while i'm behind the wheel? >> well, there are lots of things that could be done. i'm not going to preannounce products moving forward. but think of all the sensors that are within a car, that are testing what's going on in the car, that could upload it to a database that could an analysis in the cloud. you know that says, this is a little bit of an anomaly, let's fix it before it becomes a problem.

so it can provide you feedback about your car, by uploading information to the cloud. >> providing it to me or providing it to ford? >> probably both ways, it's one of those things, it will get a benefit for both parties. >> it will be an interesting question. i can see how ford would think that was valuable. it's you know, a year in, these cars are misperforming in this way. i mean it would have to be some sort of agreement that we all click through and say, yes, i agree, i agree, i have no idea what it says, send it to ford, that would be fine. is there as you develop new things, or car manufacturers develop new things, is there any kind of government regulation that says, okay, fine, you can have email in your car. or okay, fine, you can have this. but not that. or is that coming? at some point, it comes, as technology gets better and better. >> absolutely. i wouldn't be surprised if it comes. it's not there yet. i do know that in seattle there are laws that say you ant use your cell phone in the car -- >> california. yes. >> so you actually need -- >> i mean more regulations

about, to microsoft or to ford or kia or wherever. >> having the information. >> there's a limit to the number of things that you can -- let's put it this way, there's a limit to the amount of fun -- >> features. >> a driver can have. you can have seven fun things, but not eight. >> yeah, i think it would be hard to make that into a law. >> you must have come across -- >> we're working closely with the car makers to make this happen. so it makes sense for both the car makers and the drivers. >> there must have been some features that you've come along when you thought. because engineers are very much like oh, throw that in because people will love it. and somebody must have said, that isn't going to jive because of the consequences. there must be some features where you have you have completely nixed at the outset, i'm wondering what those are. >> if you look at the things on the iphone or the windows 7, these are immersive apps and games. we're not going to put games. >>, but we know people would love it we know that perhaps the

passenger would sit and want to play with it. but it probably crosses a line where we really could create a distraction. >> if you're driving in l.a., you couldn't have angry birds, you could have angry drivers. >> that's a great idea. >> and with all the sensors on the car and right in the car and all the software in the car, do you think it can make the car, the driving experience also much more fun. but much safr safer? because it can warn you you're getting too close to the guy in the next lane? >> absolutely. an example that's currently shipping, you put it in reverse, it has an immediate backup camera. it tells you if things are close to the side. a couple of months ago i popped off a mirror because i didn't notice that the pole was jumping out in front of me. but the ford cars would be able to identify that for you. >> you're not driving a ford car right now? >> this is the car i had before this job. and no, my next car will be a ford. >> that's the thing don't change their cars that often.

price must also be an issue for all of these, for all the gizmos. is it much more? >> it is more, but the brilliance that ford had was to be able to come in with a low-enough price point that people can just option into it. 70% of cars with ford chips have sync in it. >> steve, we have to wrap it there, we appreciate you being with us. ever had a clever idea? a great new invention? it was so clever, why aren't you a millionaire by now? up next, how it go from idea to product when "press: here" continues.

welcome back to "press: here." most people have invented something. at least in their heads, thinking -- how to do something with that. only, they never do. my invention would be some sort of little device, maybe the size

of a quarter, that you could attach to your little athlete, that would somehow communicate with the auto focus on your camera, keeping your child in focus, even when other children got in the picture. it would be a great invention, but i've never actually gotten around to doing anything with the idea. >> everyone can see the inventive and creative ingenuity of our american boys. >> despite america's reputation as builders of things, two-thirds of american who is come up with an invention do nothing with it. according to a recent roper poll. about 1-10 actually file a patent or contact a manufacturer. this despite the fact that consumers hunger for interesting new ideas, like -- >> kid proof. the gyro bowl, a bowl that keeps your snack s where they belong.

>> edison nation is a company that helps inventors bring products to market, like the gyro bowl and produces the pbs television show, "every day edisons." i've got lots of questions for you. we'll get right to the gyro bowl. it's sitting right there. it really works. >> it really works, it keeps the snacks where they belong in the bowl. >> invented by some parent. i know maggie is itching to touch it. >> it was a husband and wife who came to season two with "everyday edisons" with a problem. and that is, their kids were spilling snacks. our team of engineers and designers came up with a solution and the product went to market and is doing incredibly well. >> where's the accelerometer? >> people come up with these sorts of things. never do anything with it. one of the fears, i think, is i'm going to tell somebody and they're going to steal it and it will be like the guy who invented the delay wipers and it

will it go to my grave. aren't you going to steal it. i email you and say, this is what i'm thinking and you say we're not interested and then we find it in the stores. >> it's about trust. we produce a pbs show and there's a lot of trust in that and we produce "inventors' digest" magazine. we're the good guys, we're willing to put the dollars out there, develop the product and share the royalties with the inventors, but you have to be careful. if the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. >> what's your percentage return? how much of the percentage of the idea do you take? >> it's a very transparent process. with the tv show we invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop the product, bring it to marked and then the inventor receive as royalty. typically if we're bringing the product to market, they get $10% of sales. which is about three to five times what the industry average is. typically inventors get 2% to 3% royalties. >> you do produce invention not related to the tv show, though? >> or is it good enough to be an

invention, it's good enough to be on the show? >> each season we help ten inventors get their ideas to market. but idea 11 through 100 are still great. so we launched edison nation, an online community, where we partner up with the biggest companies out there, procter & gamble, bed, bath and beyond, walmart, to find out where they're looking for ideas. cast a big net, collect those ideas, aggregate them, filter them and license them. >> in an era of technology, and we're here in silicon valley, is there still really markets, significant markets for something that is shall we say, low-tech in. >> you know, this is not the next google. but if you're a 2-year-old or the parent of a 2-year-old, it's just as valuable. >> what is the thing with the blanket, with the sleeves? >> the snuggy. >> i don't know how many units they've sold on that. >> $1 billion, right? >> when it comes to the individuals, the inventors, what are the common mistakes that people make in trying to get

their idea out of their brain or off a sheet of paper into reality? >> well, typically, people have great ideas, we all have great ideas. but people don't follow through because they don't have the time, they don't have the financial resources, they don't have the expertise. people don't know how to do it. and so you've got to surround yourself with good people. find the people who you can trust. find the people who have a proven track record of achieving success. and then collaborate. >> but that's easy to say. you know, joe blogs, who lives in a small town in a big state has no idea or probably doesn't have access to those kinds of people. >> you know, i'm going to argue that he does. only in the sense that in this day and age, the ability to go on to a forum, or those sorts of things and say what do you think of, or how would i -- even the access to chinese manufacturers, online saying -- i could, can you build this for me? >> it is definitely getting easier. the world has gotten so much smaller today because of technology.

but sometimes it just asking around. your local community college. maybe it's talking with your attorney, talk with a patent attorney and get a good referral from someone who makes a profession of protecting an intellectual property. >> i hate to go all macroeconomic on us here. but where are these things made? and how does america profit beyond, beyond the financial gain from an entrepreneur's idea? does this create jobs? >> it does. you know, some of the products that we develop on the show end up being mrd offshore. but other products are manufactured in the u.s. i'll point to an example, this month's issue of popular "science" features a product that is one of our season four inventors, a prosthetic hand that will be manufactured here in the u.s. it's a very low-cost, solution for people who are born either without a hand or are amputees. i think also that there are countries that can outmanufacturer us or out-cheap

us. but nobody can outthink us. i think as long as we can come up with the ideas, i think where it's manufactured is important. but not as important as being the guy who came up with the idea. >> and it results in jobs for the retailer who sells the product for the companies that deliver the product. the tv shows that promote the product. i mean there's a great ecosystem around innovation. we have to continue to innovate, as a society to maintain the quality of life that we have today. >> silicon valley ironically doesn't have a patent office. how important is it to go from great idea, my camera idea, to the patent office? is that my first stop? is a lawyer my first stop? where do i go, maggie asked that question, kind of, too. where do i go first? >> the first thing you need to do is determine if the idea is feasible. before you start spending money or filing patents and building prototypes, to determine what's unique about the product. why would a consumer buy this product. what problem does it solve and why it's different from everything else that's out

there. and then determine if you can make money from it. the world is littered with lots of inventions that never amount to anything because there wasn't a big-enough market for it or maybe you couldn't deliver it at a price point that consumers are willing to pay for it. assuming that you can determine that it's feasible. then you surround yourself with good people. you meet with a reputable patent attorney to protect the idea. >> what would a patent attorney cost me. >> typically a patent costs between $6,000 and $10,000. but it's a small price in the overall scope of bringing an invention to market. >> one of the great things you do in this country is that soap box derby thing. and science fairs. we don't really kind of do that in the uk. i don't remember that growing up. >> and maker fair this weekend. and i'm going to turn that from a question to a statement because we've run out of time. the mager fair over the course

of the weekend, including later on sunday. that's all the time we have.

that's our show for this week. my thanks to our guests. you've noticed we've been on before "meet the press," rather than after. it's going to last a couple more weeks. but you can watch the show any time you darn well please at "press: here"tv.com. i'm scott mcgrew, thanks for making us part of your sunday morning.