Microsoft's plan for controlling your living room.Tomshardware (technically TG Daily) has an article running centered around the findings of iSuppli yesterday and the predictions of its analysts. It is definitely recommended reading, and summarizes quite well what Microsoft is aiming to achieve over the next two years specifically.
Along with Intel, Microsoft is a major supporter of HD DVD - one of the few remaining proponents not straddling the fence. Here is where the story starts to sound more like a traditional consumer electronics industry evolution tale, and where that term "convergence" re-enters the picture. As Crotty pointed out, the company co-developed, and maintains a major investment in, the iHD interactive layer, which is the XML-based language that supports the underlying interactive functions. Microsoft is interested in iHD for more than just HD DVD; it will reportedly play a role in the company's upcoming PC operating system, Windows Vista, as well as in its "Live" online services, which have received considerably more attention of late. Meanwhile, the Blu-ray standard which Sony championed, and which it will reportedly include in its PS3, utilizes BD-J, a competing interactive standard based on Sun Microsystems' Java.All of which is why the company must, and probably will, introduce an HD DVD version of Xbox 360, Crotty believes, either at or just before the point it just begins to break even on its costs for the current version. "The new interactive layers will have functionality that will connect to online options," he noted. "So if you're Microsoft, that idea is probably very enticing, because you're always trying to expand your connection to your existing online businesses as well. And if you are Microsoft, and you're maybe envisioning a future in which you're part of whatever Media Center there is in the future, I think you want to be involved with that interactive layer, especially if it has some connection to the Internet.
"The other part of Microsoft's grand plan," continued Crotty, "seems to be that they are making a lot of investment and development in IPTV and IP set-top boxes. So again, this is an opportunity where Microsoft is seeing a future in which they are a key participant in the sort of next-generation living room device, or devices, and that future involves connection between the hardware and the Internet as well. You can think of it as Microsoft coming at it from a few different angles, hoping that everything will meet in the middle."
Check out the full article here.
Microsoft definitely has a leg up on Sony as far as next (this?) generation consoles go, simply because of the unified online service that Sony is reportedly forgoing from the PS3. The Xbox 360 is indeed one of the slickest pieces of technology I've yet laid hands on (it's up there with OS X), but as Toms is reporting, over the next two years, the way in which our media is controlled will change drastically, and if Microsoft manages to unify how it is done, and incorporate full (or close to full) functionality into its exisitng platforms (namely the Xbox 360), then they will undoubtedly score a win.
Either way, Microsoft has a long road ahead of them if they plan on pushing the HD-DVD format and the standards that accompany it. Getting the drives into new 360's would be one thing, but ensuring a painless and hopefully free upgrade for existing owners would be the most difficult, and most important part of their plan.
What do you think? Drop us a comment!
Article Link: Can Xbox 360 succeed as a mainstream consumer electronics gadget?
