(IDG) -- Microsoft Corp. Chairman and CEO Bill Gates sees a future when smart phones, intelligent wristwatches and Web-enabled televisions will outsell PCs, and he said Microsoft will make sure a version of Windows runs on all those devices.

"A lot of people have a very narrow definition of a PC," Gates said, speaking at the IDC Forum being held in Paris yesterday. Microsoft's goal will be to make sure its software runs on all types of devices, Gates said, adding that the software firm sees the proliferation of alternative Internet access devices as a plus.

However, one analyst said Microsoft should be concerned about the possibility of these devices replacing PCs. Because no single platform is standard for the wide range of devices poised to enter the market, Microsoft will have to prove that operating systems it develops are better than new competitors' offerings, said Frank Gens, senior vice president of Internet research at International Data Corp., a sister company of Computerworld.

Although this year, just 4% of those accessing the Internet are using non-PC devices, that number is expected to skyrocket to 43% by 2002, Gens said.

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Microsoft competitors, including Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp., are touting Java as a natural for writing applications for these new information devices, but Gates disagreed.

The idea that developers could write one application that runs on everything from a wristwatch to a PC isn't valid, he said. Instead, developers will use different languages and different tools for each device to take advantage of each platform, Gates predicted. Microsoft will continue to develop tools, operating systems and applications to take advantage of many hardware platforms, he said.

Moving on to other topics, Gates took a poke at IBM. Although he called the company Microsoft's "biggest competitor," Gates attacked what he called IBM's "fragmented" approach. "What is IBM's unique architectural initiative?" Gates said. "There's a vacuum there that we are benefiting from immensely."

"We like him to say we are his main competitor," said Peter Abrahams, a programming manager at IBM's Europe, Middle East and Africa software division. But Abrahams disagreed that IBM doesn't have a central strategy for its platform architecture. The company sees Java, and Oracle Corp.'s Network Computing Architecture -- which aims to let companies meld different hardware and software platforms using Java -- as central to its software strategy, he said.

"He's [Gates] slamming Java, and you can understand why," Abrahams said. "It's not to his advantage to see Java succeed."

Gates also said Microsoft won't become a services company. Rather, it will leave its services partners -- which range from Compaq Computer Corp. to small, specialized systems integrators -- to offer, install and support Microsoft products in the enterprise.