Inflection Point (Is the new Microsoft XBox 360 a Dell-killer?)

PBS I, Cringeley ^ | May 12, 2005 | Robert X. Cringely

[HAL9000]

The funny thing about Microsoft's Xbox demo this week is that it was totally bogus. The video images were actually being generated on a PowerMac G5.

[goldstategop]

Google is already King Of Desktop Search. Its final product is still better than its first beta. They really ARE aiming for GoogleWorld.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[angkor]

only Google, cable companies, telephone companies, users, and of course advertisers and web page producers.

Why will Google need telephone companies in the emerging VoIP world? A world in which Google will control the most massive telephone directory (and yellow pages) on earth, and telephone numbers have become utterly obsolete.

Phone company, schmone company. Bosh.

Yet another reason for Google's dark fiber.

[goldstategop]

The new Ma Bell Of The Digital Age.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Jet Jaguar]

The irony.

[1FASTGLOCK45]

Have you seen the new Sony PSPs (handhelds video game/movie machines? They are awesome .

[angkor]

The new Ma Bell Of The Digital Age.

Soon enough.

[HAL9000]

Microsoft is going to take a big chunk of low-end marketshare from Dell and the other clone marketers.

[goldstategop]

Microsoft may well conclude rather than compromise on Longhorn its better if it can wait to develop both the hardware and the operating system to run together just as Apple does. That way it gets control over the quality of both software and hardware development.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[OmegaMan]

I don't see how this thing can be more powerful than any PC today, but thats what I heard. I did see it on MTV and it does look like a PC, they had it standing on end like a tower. And its white, at least thats the color it looked like.

There's the 'cell processor' too, which this guy doesn't mention. I'm not a tech geek so I can't say much about it except that its Sony's attempt to overtake Intel, heh. This is a like some kind of tech war.

Not sure I like the idea of everything going through Google... seems like it'd be too easy then to censor stuff, either by Google or by the gov't using Google.

[Southack]

"Microsoft is going to take a big chunk of low-end marketshare from Dell and the other clone marketers."

It's TiVo and Sony that MS will probably crush, though I'm surprised that MS didn't simply buy tiVo outright to gain home-theatre marketshare.

Make the new XBox also function as a DVR, and suddenly your gamers don't need TiVo...plus they can download new games and custom graphics for their favorite games.

So 1 new XBox replaces what the Sony Playstation and TiVo DVR once combined to do...making both obsolete in a single move.

Oh, and make the new XBox yourself in-house so that you can expand into the home tech hardware market in a big way at the expense of the marginal players such as Gateway.

Who ever said that games weren't serious?!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now things are getting interesting!

[FredWolfe]

XBOX 360 is gonna rule.

[HAL9000]

It sure looks like a Microsoft PC, and it has 3 PowerPC processors - plenty of power to run Microsoft Office.

[neb52]

Yes this is were MS and other vendors are going. The home Desktop is being relegated to a niche market, with Set Top Boxes/Home Theater PCs and Laptops/PDAs replacing them as the primarily computing device. I wouldn't be to surprise if some Monitor/TV manufacturers(like Dell) didn't start integrating the STBs into the Monitor/TV. Most people are very computer illiterate even people younger then I(26). By combining the Boob Tube and the PC it makes it easier for the Technological Challenged. Think about what most people use their PC for at home. Web surfing, email, banking and gaming. Not much as far as raw computing, except for some games.

[neb52]

The last one was already considered a PC. You could hack it and put Linux on it and have a cheap PC. I would imagine one could do the same with this one. :P

[kms61]

Interesting, but I remember reading four or five years ago about how there had been a paradigm shift and we'd all be getting free internet, free long distance, and even free electric power in the near future. I never quite understood the business model that was supposed to bring all this about while still turning a profit to the people providing it. Turns out they didn't either.

We'll see where all this goes.

Another point to ponder is this: If Google (or whoever) controls the internet pipeline, they de facto control the content.

[JerseyHighlander]

I'm in the camp that media PC's are going to be the future, and that the Xbox2 will have limited appeal because most users won't pay for the redundancies. Households will spend those electronics dollars on their first blue laser disc player, first HDTV, or first dolby 9.1 system. Buying a PS3 will provide the blue laser player, provide content for the first HDTV, and (hopefully) provide streaming media for the new sound system.

Of course, Sony will have to provide the ability to connect to Windows PC's to stream media now.

Of course, since more Xbox2's will be sold than G6 generation Apples, MS will control the supply of chips.

[rmmcdaniell]

I don't see how this thing can be more powerful than any PC today, but thats what I heard. I did see it on MTV and it does look like a PC, they had it standing on end like a tower. And its white, at least thats the color it looked like.

I am certain console gaming systems will not replace PCs.

Consoles are good for two things:

1. Cost advantages from being stripped-down boxes soley for playing games.

2. Uniformity: games will play effortlessly on a single system without the developer having to worry about the endless different configurations of PCs

Disadvantages

1. Useless for doing anything productive.

2. Quickly becomes obsolete and cannot be upgraded.

3. Rigid software making it very difficult to customize to individual's needs.

[Myrddin]

Why will Google need telephone companies in the emerging VoIP world?

The telephone companies carry the internet traffic as a common carrier. VoIP is just TCP/IP networking with voice content, but it travels over transmission facilities owned by the telephone companies. VoIP is just taking the directory number switch out of the equation for desktop to desktop voice traffic. If you actually connect to a real telephone with a directory number, the phone company is still delivering traffic to the end user.