“Despite Bill Gates’ announcement of new partnerships with LG, Discovery Channel and many others, his dream, of a Media Center where all media can be controlled with one remote and shared among all possible devices, will come true but not for Microsoft,” Frank Ottink writes for YEALD. “So far the only company who has control over most aspects and has proven that it can pull together the parties is of course Apple with the iPod/iTunes combination.”
Ottink writes, “I’m not sure, but like many others, I suspect the rumored below $500 Q88 or ‘headless’ iMac, will be the first step of Apple to create a seamless media experience. The fact that it is headless makes it very suitable to become a TiVo like Personal Video Recorder sitting under or on top of a TV. Add some nifty Media Center software, connectivity to the iPod, the house network, and the internet, preferably wireless, and you have the perfect Media Center solution without having to buy a new high-end Media Center PC. “
“Just connect it to your existing PC or Mac and you have the best of both worlds a dedicated workstation anywhere in the house connected to a dedicated media center in the family living room sharing whatever media they have stored on them without wires. To make it all worthwhile for Apple, assure that with the remote control, songs and videos can be bought, downloaded and/or streamed. The users then have access to all the media they want,” Ottink writes. “If Apple would succeed in achieving this it certainly will attract a lot of first time Mac buyers and can take a large byte out of the Media Center market away from Microsoft, just as it did with the iPod and iTunes in the portable audio and on-line music market. This will eat into Microsoft’s and the related hardware vendors’ market share as the Media Center is one of the few growth drivers left in the PC business. On top of that it will convert more buyers completely to the Mac platform further reducing Microsoft’s overall market share.”
Full article here.
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Apple vs. Microsoft rivalry heats up again – January 10, 2005