Microsoft's Consumer Electronics Endgame

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008231.html' target='_blank'>http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008231.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"It doesn't matter that Microsoft doesn't lead in music downloads right now, though if you combined all the different WMA music stores, it might come close to Apple's iTunes. What's important is that Microsoft *owns* the alternative to Apple and is already branching out to areas like movies and home-recorded content. It's amazing to see history repeating itself, no? Apple lost the PC desktop because it refused to license its Graphical User Interface and now they're going to lose the Consumer Electronics market because they've failed to license their FairPlay DRM technology. Everyone was laughing at Bill Gates' gaffs this week at the CES. The bluescreen of death, etc. But did you *see* what they were showing off? They have set top boxes, mobile phones, PDAs, portable video players, game consoles and more all running Microsoft software, and most importantly, all supporting the same Windows Media codec and DRM. The final piece of the puzzle was the TiVo To Go announcement. Now it's not just content you buy, it's your personal content as well."</i> <br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/playforsure.gif" /> <br /><br />CES has turned into the Microsoft show these days. Almost every device either supports a Microsoft format or is built upon a Microsoft platform. The big question is not if Microsoft will overtake Apple, but when they will. We'll see how this <a href="http://www.macworldexpo.com">Macworld</a> goes, but I'm going out on a limb here and say this could be the high point for Apple's digital dominance.

[Jason Dunn]

Over the years I've noticed something:

When Microsoft builds platforms, they always win.

When they build products, they win some and lose some.

Windows Media is a platform. :D

[sojourner753]

I definitely agree with the whole platform discussion.

Microsoft has very little investment in selling devices and hardware. As a matter of fact almost any hardware they produce seems to only have the purpose to lure people back to their platforms.

Look at Xbox for example. Microsoft is working on a common architecture that will allow game developers to develop for both the PC and Xbox.

For Microsoft it ultimately doesn't matter who makes or sells the device as long as its on a Microsoft architecture. I believe this is its advantage over Apple and really most other companies that it competes with.

Behold the power of platforms.