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.
I don't think so. I think the great majority of the PPC chips made are going to DOD. As far as I know, all new military embedded processors have been PPC for years now, since Intel bailed out of the market five years ago.