“Microsoft, the technology industry’s perennial late-to-the-game player, finally finds itself with a lead in home-entertainment software. It’s up to a high-energy engineer named Joe Belfiore to keep it that way,” Robert A. Guth reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Belfiore is the 37-year-old vice president in charge of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Center, a remote-controlled software menu for managing music, movies and other digital entertainment on personal computers and, increasingly, TV screens.”
“Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates demonstrated the Vista-Media Center combination last night at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He also announced a ‘mini’ Media Center PC made by Averatec Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and a partnership with DirecTV Inc. that for the first time lets consumers view DirecTV satellite programming on their PCs,” Guth reports. “The Vista-Media Center plan could help bolster Microsoft’s defenses against a possible challenge from a competitor with big momentum — Apple Computer Inc. In October Apple announced Front Row, a program for its iMac G5 computers that, like Media Center, helps organize and find digital content with a remote control. Apple isn’t commenting on its plans but is widely expected to try to take Front Row to more of its machines, and possibly to TV sets as well.”
“The Apple threat seems menacing, in part because of recent history: Its iPod was a late entry in an established field of digital music players but soon stole the lion’s share of the market. At Microsoft, Front Row is already causing ripples: Mr. Gates in an email to Mr. Belfiore asked why Apple’s remote control had just six buttons. The standard Media Center remote from Microsoft has 39 buttons. (Mr. Belfiore’s explanation: Front Row computers don’t have TV or digital video recorder functions and thus don’t need as many buttons.) At stake is more than just another piece of software for home computers. Both companies, and others, are trying to build the foundational technology for all home digital entertainment,” Guth reports.
“Mr. Belfiore learned of Apple’s Front Row effort while sitting in a meeting as a colleague read news of an Apple event from his cellphone screen. Soon he learned — as did Mr. Gates — that Apple Chairman Steve Jobs showed the audience at the event a slide comparing his six-button remote to Media Center’s remote. Known for his optimism, Mr. Belfiore wrote to his team that he saw Apple’s entry as a “validation” that Microsoft was on the right track with the Media Center,” Guth reports. “It remains to be seen how many consumers with the Media Center software on their PCs will actually use it and few homes have networks that are fast enough to effectively link Media Center PCs with TVs and other gadgets. But Mr. Belfiore remains optimistic. With new competition from Apple, ‘the next year will tell us a lot,’ he says. ‘This will be the start of an exciting new period for us.'”
Full article here.
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