Microsoft Ready To "Take On'' Google and Apple TV 182
Antisyzygy writes "Microsoft is getting ready to offer an internet television solution of its own, and will demo a TV box this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas." The rumor is under $200 putting it more on price point with GoogleTV at the moment.
Sure (Score:4, Insightful)
The more competition, the better (Score:5, Insightful)
If MS has something like all-you-can-watch video similar to the all-you-can-download subscription system for the Zune, it might be something worth considering.
However, why does MS need a TV set top box? They already have one... the XBox 360.
Re:Sure (Score:2, Insightful)
NO. NO, GOD, NO (Score:5, Insightful)
From a Microsoft stock holder : NO. NO, NO, NO.
Microsoft does ONE thing well : it hires thousands of competent programmers and it makes usable software. There are many critics but the stuff isn't all bad and they do try to improve it. It SELLS the software to users, and because it has so many customers, the revenue vastly exceeds the cost of paying thousands of programmers. They have a swanky corporate headquarters with all the free soda you can chug, and many many 6-figure jobs.
It's failed miserably at EVERYTHING ELSE IT HAS TRIED. As far as I know, it has not made ONE DOLLAR OF NET PROFIT ON ANYTHING ELSE.
It's wasted billions of dollars trying to compete as an online portal and as a search engine. A company crammed to the brim with top CS grads and extremely good custom software SPECIALIZES in search and basically nothing else. Expecting to ever beat them and make more money is a fool's errand.
It's wasted more billions, with little or NO net profits on gaming consoles. (MAYBE it's finally breaking even on that, but I doubt it)
And 50 other assorted ventures that never made a dime that we don't hear about.
Software is STILL a good idea. How about the executives pay dividends and focus on doing their core business WELL.
Re:Sure (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a crowded area that's getting more crowded by the day. Microsoft's half-hearted attempts thusfar have done nothing to slow the rest of the market down and likely won't in the future. Microsoft simply doesn't have the mojo that it once did. Microsoft spewing vapor doesn't impress as much as it used to.