The New York Times goes into some detail, Microsoft s Latest Plan for TV [nytimes.com], concerning the newest version, (3.0) of Microsoft's XP Media Center, which Redmond hopes will gain traction in the living room. Price points are dropping down to $1000 per unit, and new accessories from Cisco, Linksys and H-P include Media Center Extender, which uses wireless technology to send TV signals to additional TVs in your house.
The choice quote of the article is:
Still, it is an open question whether people want to watch television on their computers. "Convergence solves a problem consumers don't have," said Sean Baenen, a managing director of Odyssey, a consumer research firm. He said that simpler, single-purpose machines are easier to use.Later in the article, the point is reinforced that it's clear that new consumer behavior takes time to change, especially in the mass market.
But research by both Microsoft and computer makers found that most of the initial users of the machines were using them on their computer monitors, presumably on their desks. Only a small minority use the highly promoted ability of the computers to link to TV sets and sound systems for use in family rooms. (The machines come with remote controls and software with very large type so that they can be used by people sitting on the couch across the room from a big TV set.)The article touches upon Sony's VAIO line of computers and how many have TV tuners but haven't been XP Media Center. According to Sony, their customers would rather burn recorded media to DVD than play it directly from their machines. Does that seem accurate to you? Sourced fromunmediatedReblogged by dymaxion on October 13, 2004 02:23 PMOne reason, perhaps, is that video-recording functions and picture quality have not been as good as on a device like TiVo. A survey by Forrester Research found that people who recorded video on their computers were less satisfied than users of specialized recorders.
