Bill Gates announced the five winners of Microsoft's Next-Gen PC Design Competition at the 2007 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Los Angeles.

The 349 designs in this year's competition were judged for their innovation, user experience and interaction, aesthetics, use of new technologies and eco-friendliness.

A panel of 10 jurors, all internationally renowned industrial designers, chose the three Judges Awards winners from 34 finalists. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his advisors selected the Chairman’s Award. The Public Choice Award was chosen online by visitors to the competition Web site.

Microsoft developed the contest in 2005 as a way of connecting with the design community and to encourage it to think about more innovative PC designs. The competition is held in collaboration with the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Icsid.

Judges' Awards

1st Place - Prize $25,000 USD
Blok: Kindergarten Classroom Aid
     
2nd Place - Prize $15,000 USD
BulbPC
     
3rd Place - Prize $10,000 USD
Zeeds for the Future
 

Chairman's Award - Prize $25,000 USD

Selected by Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect, with the assistance of his advisory committee.

MADE in China
 

Public's Choice Award - Prize $10,000 USD

Selected by the public from among the top 34 entries (as determined by the Judge’s) via the virtual showroom from February 9th – March 23rd 2007.

Light up your Life

Winner, Chairman's Award: MADE in China

MADE in China involves MADE (Massively Administered Digital Entities) infrastructure, which means the PC itself contains no CPU, hard drive, graphics card or sound card. All that stuff is stored up in a 3G wireless service provider's network. The data from the components is then wirelessly transmitted to the user's PC when needed. MADE in China's memorable touch-screen interface is based on an Asian-style dining platter. Special chopsticks-like stylus are used to enter commands. The PC was designed by John Leung from AARIVE Design of Melbourne, Australia.

Winner, Judge's Award, First Place: blok

blok is a kindergarten classroom PC with a design inspired by classic toy building blocks. The product consists of two computer units that interlock to form a cube. Kids can manipulate items on the screen with their hands. They can also use peripheral devices which include two 'keyboard' mats, a set of digital markers, and a set of interactive shapes. blok was designed by Christianne LeBlanc, Jessica Livingston and Maarianne Goldberg from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Winner, Judge's Award, Second Place: BulbPC

BulbPC, which fits neatly into a desk grommet hole, is a simple and efficient computer designed for underserved markets in developed and developing worlds. The BulbPC comes as a kit, so some assembly required, and monitor not included. The PC was designed by independent designers Allen Wong and Matt Conway of Los Angeles.

Winner, Judge's Award, Third Place: Zeed+ for the Future

The Zeed+ was inspired by "Ikebana," the Japanese traditional art of formal flower arrangement. Each of the stem-shaped hardware units has its own function: one stem controls media, another houses the operating system, another manages networking and so on. The stems are interchangeable so that the PC can be outfitted for different user types. Commands are entered by touching the vase, or base of the PC, which acts as the monitor. The Zeed+ was designed by Kenneth W. K. Wu, an independent designer from Toronto, Canada.

Winner, Public Choice Award: Light Up Your Life

Light Up Your Life features a mobile terminal in the form of a glowing cylindrical orb called the Light. The Light can serve as flashlight, portable multimedia player, mobile phone, or as an interface to wireless networks that enable data transmission between the mobile terminal and a remote server. The Light mobile terminal has both a traditional graphical user interface and natural-speech-interaction interface, and requires a monitor. The PC was designed by Zhu Fei, a freelance designer in Jiangxi, Chin

For more information, please visit www.nextgendesigncomp.com