On 5/5/05, Andrew Lentvorski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
As for xbox, that's probably one of the few smart moves Microsoft made recently. Consoles have a built-in 3 year upgrade cycle. That's *much* better than Windows.
Perhaps. But one of the effects that Windows seems to be aiming at is to make that upgrade cycle go away. Not only is the Xbox OS be upgradable, but they're building the Xboxes on standard PC hardware, meaning it will be upgradable too. You can swap out hard drives or add networking capability or install a spiffy Bluetooth card or some such. And even if they're trying their hardest to make it so all that upgrading is done on Microsoft's terms,
I've read somewhere that Microsoft doesn't really like that situation and that they are working on the next version of the XBox to be more proprietary and tamper-proof.
Naturally, M$ would not be too averse to upgrading if it were on their terms, and with /their/ branded hardware.
instead of the willy-nilly anarchic tinkering that happens with conventional PCs, it still means the game console is becoming just another PC.
It's your "anarchic tinkering" that made the PC market what it is today. A result of IBM's mistaken belief that their idea was safe if they just copyrighted their BIOS, it brought what the Apple ][ offered to a new level. After Compaq did their own BIOS, effectively spawning the /real/ PC revolution, IBM tried to shunt it to a spur by introducing the PS/2 line and the MicroChannel bus lock-in. But the horse was out of the barn and mating. Microsoft still doesn't understand that it was IBM"s hardware design rather than it's (plagiarised) OS that grew the commodity PC market.
They (surely) want third parties to be able to market their Xbox add-ons to work with other home entertainment gadgets, and that means some kind of physical infrastructure for that, and that means people don't have to rush out and buy the Xbox 2 or the Xbox 3 or whatever.
Not if they can control the hardware market like they control the software market. M$ surely would shed no tears if the whole third party hardware industry disappeared in any form other than to service its own mare.
Which doesn't mean that Microsoft's move was bad, necessarily. Better to pulverize a business model than to let someone else reap its benefits, ja?
-todd
The XBox may well be little more than an exploratory incursion into the hardware business. Call it an intelligence mission.
-- Best Regards, ~DJA.
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