Sentox6 wrote...
bEVEsthda wrote...
-snip-
The opportunity is there, otherwise. Plain and obvious. They've already built an impressive foundation for it in DirectX. The center of home media. Entertainment software. Like Amazing games. And amazing online experiences. It's a golden opportunity. And they're doing nothing. On the contrary, they're lagging to pave way for the XBox.
I was with you until this point. You make the point that the PC's functionality is becoming increasingly relegated to more specialised devices, which is quite true. But I see no compelling reason why gaming can somehow become the bastion of PC usage. If smartphones and pads can take over communication and information needs, then consoles can take fulfil entertainment and gaming needs. Increasingly, they are. It would be paradoxical for the PC's primary purpose to become a gaming platform: it's simply an excess of functionality for a singular purpose.
We're so off topic here.
But fun enough.
I didn't say it would be the primary purpose, and I certainly didn't mean it would be limited to run console type of games. I said entertainment software and I had much fancier things in mind. Not the primary purpose of the PC, but the primary reason to have a PC instead of something else (like a dumb console), for all your home computing, storage and connection needs. And I think you severely underestimate how much PC-gaming has already meant for the cost- and performance-development history of the PC. And also underestimate how much directX has meant for the market share of Windows.
The PC as we know it is probably on the way out. The 360 is just a specialised PC; a subset of functionality, which is in line with the trends you yourself point out.
No. The 360 is nothing at all like a PC.
But the reason MS launched the XBox, and paid good money for doing it, most of the way, was to use competition as a way to stop Sony from establishing a new mass market computing standard. If they hadn't, Sony PS could have eventually become the new PC, conquering computing tiers from below, just as the PC did.
And sure, MS can use the XBox inline with the trends I pointed out. Only, they're not going to survive by it. Everything changes with each new generation, since nobody achieves standard status. And XBox position on the console market has very much been purchased with money earned from their Windows OS business.
Imo, Microsoft's best opportunity is to preserve the one key factor that makes the PC superior: its software openness. Encourage homebrew and customisation, and you have a market segment that will never be satisfied by closed devices.
The devices are not "closed"? Many, many applications engineered as we speak, are already aimed at the phones and pads. What "homebrew and customization"? You mean hardware? Well in that case we're back with consumer high performance use, meaning gaming?
Microsoft's foray into console gaming didn't kill Sony. The immense appeal of the Wii hasn't sunk the 'core' consoles.
Sony was in a lot of trouble. But Microsofts execution was flawed. First, they didn't provide anything different from what Sony was providing. Just another console. Second, their hardware quality was severely inferior. Primarily, MS paid for the XBox market penetration. Used raw money, and sacrificed PC-gaming, forcing gamers to go to the 360 instead of the PC for titles.. And they were up against Sony's immense number of titles for Sony's previous success. Sony's old PS2 saved their ass until production costs of the PS3 came down.
Wii, finally, is a completely different kind of contraption.
Now I don't know that Apple intends to ever launch a game console. (Maybe they end up using games to ensure dominance of their iPad instead. Who knows?). But if they ever do, I'm quite sure it's not going to be anything same like the other consoles. And money won't help MS then, cause Apple has a lot more.
Apple have never been able to triumph against Microsoft in the OS market. It doesn't follow that everything Apple does will somehow monopolise the market.
They've never monopolized any market. Just taken big bites. They've never tried in the PC-OS market, if that's what you mean. (They've totally triumphed over MS in the mobile OS market.) Jobs was kicked out by the investment capitalists. MS Windows achieved status of standard while Apple leaders had no clue this was the competition target. They were only interested in high margins. When Jobs eventually reconquered Apple with the help of his new company, Next, Apple was worth 7b and MS 250b. Today, not so many years later, Apple is bigger than MS. So today is a completely different competition. MS will be a future margin player. The really big future player, and main threat to anyone else, including Apple, is Google. And I'll tell you a secret: Google fundamentally don't like PCs, and have a clever plan to get rid of them. Google wants all your computing, all your connections, all your storage, everything in their power, under their scrutiny, on their servers. And you're already paying Google money, in roundabout ways you don't know of. And you're already doing things Google wants you to do, in roundabout ways you don't know of.
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