On Sun, 2003-10-12 at 11:47, Bryan Phinney wrote: > On Sunday 12 October 2003 10:52 am, Douglas Bainbridge wrote: > > Further to my last post > > One of the things that I would ask everyone who accesses the IT 2003 and > Beyond article is that some of the interpretations of the author are just > that, interpretations. Without being privy to MS's actual strategic plans > over the next few years, it is impossible to know if that author's > interpretations about the business goals of MS are actually correct. The > technical plans have already been published, but as with all things, those > can be perceived in a favorable light or unfavorable light. > > Based upon interviews with Steve Ballmer, I think that I am understanding at > least one deviation in MS's plans and that is changing the fundamental idea > of a personal computer to become more like a game console (Xbox). The idea > would be that the PC becomes a closed box with OS and hardware integrated to > the point that they are inseparable (and not upgradeable). These PC's would > not be sold as general function devices but built and marketed for very > specific purposes. Kinda like the PSx Sony announced lately?
> Thus, you buy a closed box PC sold as a Multimedia entertainment device. Much > like an Xbox but built for movies, music, windows media files, etc. But a > closed box that you can't really change the software out in. Download movies > on demand, play DVD's etc. All with Digital rights management, etc. built > right into the box, 5.1 or 6.1 sound, rights management for on demand, > encoding for pre-packaged music and movies. Yet another device is sold for > kids and children for homework, with web surfing, MSN, instant messaging, and > maybe light entertainment usage. Yet another device, Xbox, for game > purposes. Perhaps yet another device for home business, or home finance, > budgeting, records, correspondence, email, etc. > > Hopefully, you get the picture. By splitting up the market into smaller > segments and building closed boxes, MS gets to sell more copies of its > software, they close down loopholes that allow pirating or bypassing digital > rights management, and they insure that consumers will be upgrading every few > years, just like they now do with game consoles. With good volume, they can > get a price point that insures a lot of purchases, the entertainment industry > is happy, the game industry is happy, the hardware industry is happy and most > of all MS is happy. Stick that together with multiple manufacturers and > branding (multiple brands, GE, RCA, etc. even if they all have Intel chipsets > and MS software) and MS even dodges the Justice Dept. anti-trust bullet, > since the OS is integrated and consumers can't swap it out even if they want > to. Since the brand is different, any complaints about competition have to > be targeted to the brand manufacturers, not MS. > > Again, I do agree with a lot of the stuff in that article but I am not > convinced that anyone but Bill and Steve know the whole story about MS plans. -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mandrake HowTo's & More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org
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