Winners will be the companies which can provide consumers with uncomplicated and focused devices.

IBM said today that competitors in the market for Internet devices will fight a decisive battle within the next 18 months. Mark Bregman, general manager at IBM_s Pervasive Computing division, said that the winners will be the companies which can provide consumers with uncomplicated and focused devices. The losers will be companies like software giant Microsoft that produce powerful but complicated devices, according to Bregman. Microsoft told Reuters on Wednesday that, on the contrary, it felt well placed to succeed in the devices segment. We will soon know the answer to these counter-claims, said Bregman. "In five years this will get settled, in fact I think it will get settled in the next 12 to 18 months. In World War II, in retrospect we knew when the decisive battle was, but it took a long time afterwards to get the thing finished," Bregman said at the annual CeBIT technology fair here. Bregman said the Microsoft approach worked well in the business world, but would be less attractive in mass markets.