“Microsoft’s going to make a splash in [the television] market with a stripped-down version of Windows tailored for set-top boxes and connected TVs. The software is a version of its embedded device software, overlaid with the Windows Media Center interface, with media streaming and remote-control capabilities,” Dudley reports. “These new Windows TV boxes have been glimpsed online since Microsoft unveiled its new embedded software lineup in April, and then again at an Intel conference in September.”
Dudley reports, “The boxes are expected to cost around $200 and go on sale later this year. They’ll pose a serious challenge to the new Apple and Google TV devices, largely because the Windows boxes have a polished and familiar TV-program guide that makes it easy to blend and navigate both online and broadcast content.”
Much more in the full article, including Verizon iPhone speculation (“Many analysts and investors are counting on Verizon Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg to confirm plans for a Verizon iPhone during his keynote speech Thursday morning. If that happens, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Steve Jobs appear on stage.”) here.
MacDailyNews Take: First of all: Google TV is a failed beta currently back on the drawing board. Don’t include it with Apple’s million-selling Apple TV unless you want to give the impression that you don’t know WTF you’re talking about. Secondly: Whether Microsoft will “pose a serious challenge” to Apple TV is unknown, but with history as our guide, Microsoft surely faces long odds, especially with a device costing twice that of Apple’s. And, last, but not least: Apple can turn on apps for Apple TV and immediately change the game whenever they so desire. Attach an inexpensive Apple camera and turn on FaceTime and/or give developers an Apple TV API and – Boom! – brand new ball game. So, a $200 Microsoft box coming, as usual, “later,” may not be competing against Apple’s already successful $99 Apple TV as we know it today, but against something much more, that’ll still cost only $99.
We want to use our iPads with our Apple TVs to play Angry Birds on our 60-inch HDTVs. Make it so, Apple!
I hereby dub thee Microsoft Windows Zune Phone XBox 7 Series HDTV MMXI.
yeah yeah… but does it “Play for Sure” ?
The (wh)Y Box.
Just a Media Center front end for the stuff they already have on the XBox.
Wait until grandma has to figure out the way to turn off her Windows TV is by hitting the Start button.
This idea has success written all over it.
Everybody seems to want a piece of the cake that Apple made. Wonder if it’s so hard to make their own original product category or market?
I wonder what the “blue screen of death” will look like on people’s televisions? And how do you press control-alt-delete?
ZuneTang where are you? Please fill us in on what we already know… M$ = Fail…
Here comes another copycat Microsoft/Google product that is DOA!
Couldn’t agree more with the Angry Birds comment!!!
Play Angry Birds on the HDTV in the living room, the app running off Apple TV, and the touch interface being the iPad…Zombies, Infinity Blade – – you name it.
I thought the XBox 360 was Microsoft’s device to combat AppleTV since it already supports streaming and storage.
@ iphonerulez
This is the XBox without the games.
OH NO!!
Microsoft is going to introduce a copy of an already-successful and rapidly evolving Apple device, and they will “seriously challenge” or KILL it!
OH NO! NOT THAT!
I want the Verizon iPhone as much as anybody, but I just don’t see Steve Jobs coming on someone else’s stage. It will be quite the other way around.
@Chrissy
“This is the XBox without the games.”
You`re probably right, but one has to think why would anyone want this unannounced $200 TV box when you can get an Xbox Arcade for the same price with similar capabilities AND have games?
Kinda dumb.
I smell cannibalization.
I really don’t see Jobs EVER being a presenter at a convention, he is a keynote speaker. Also, when they announce iPhone on Verizon it’ll be at an exclusive Apple Event, keynoted by Jobs with the Verizon CEO present so they can smile at each other broadly, thank each other and shake hands in front of a big Apple logo for all the photographers. That’s how Apple does things, the author of that article doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Blue Screen has already been mentioned. I wondered about the Red Ring of Death so popular on the X Box 360. Hopefully this new box won’t have any of these problems. Hopefully they don’t put a fan in it so it will be quieter than the X Box. At that price it would almost seem to make sense to get the X Box so you are able to play games if you so choose. I guess they never give any thought to their products because they are just driven to copy no matter what… they just need a competing device regardless of the quality. Shame really…
This is good for the AppleTV.
The iHaters will buy them and and thereby validate the device concept.That will drive up demand in the category overall as more people adopt them. Many people will however will go to the ATV instead – driving sales for that device.
“the Windows boxes have a polished and familiar TV-program guide”
Yeah, right.
@NavyTim
I like your idea. However I suspect that the multi-touch interface could be provided by multiple sources: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and/or the Magic Trackpad.
Is this an oxymoron or what….
They’ll pose a serious challenge to the new Apple and Google TV devices, largely because the Windows boxes have a polished and familiar TV-program guide that makes it easy to blend and navigate both online and broadcast content.”
However, they will be available later this year? If its polished and familiar why is it not available now?
More FUD and future promises per usual Microsuck strategy….. give me a break will you!!!!
Apple TV is a joke, as is Google TV. Anyone who thinks otherwise is really drinking the Cool-Aid. Microsoft has as good a shot as anyone, as this market hasn’t really begun to develop yet. I look forward to seeing what they will offer. I also look forward to Google’s second attempt, and to seeing if Apple can add enough new features to their box to make it worth considering. As it stands now, my preference is for the much less ambitious WD TV Live Plus HD. It’s feature set is pretty spartan, but it will play darn near anything I throw at it. It too, however, lacks content just like the more ambitious boxes out there (i.e., Google, Apple).
Let’s just go ahead a say it…
We like this strategy…we like it alot!
Apple TV2 is a great device I bought it in November, but now more people got it over the holidays for $99. Problem is existing Apple Data Center sucks on bandwidth big time! Now I have to wait 30 to 60 minutes to watch a rented movie. It did not do that back in November, early December. My internet is 15Mbs! but Apple TV from Apple is slow, Netflix, everything else is fine. Not renting again until Apple opens up the new North Carolina data centre and fixes the problem.
As far as Steve Jobs taking the stage at CES…this should be easy to spot before the keynote. His jet has an N number of N2N. The plane would be parked at McCarran Airport and could be spotted from Las Vegas Blvd S across from the Emerald Green Golf Course (where the Welcome to Las Vegas sign is).
While I don’t expect to see him there, I’ll keep an eye out and report back if I see anything.
I got one to test. The Red Ring of Death came up on my TV. Inside the red ring there were tiny letters, all in hex. When I decoded them, they said “One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them…”
Then the room got dark…
The Microsoft ?Box for you TV.
XBox without games or the Zune without a screen for the TV.
at $200.00 it is a guaranteed flop of a large scale. Not quite the massive flop of the WIndows 7 Phone has been thus, far or the small scale flop the Microsoft Stores have been.
Ballmer must be having Flop Sweats every time someone compares Microsoft’s stock price and market with Apple’s.
I think Ballmer will retire (or be retired) from Microsoft by the end of 2011. The board will either promote a sales guy or bring in an outsider sales guy to take over for Ballmer as he is herded to the nearest exit.
More vaporware from MS.
And if Verizon is finally permitted to sell the iPhone (I’ll believe it when I see it), it sure as hell won’t be Verizon announcing it first.
I am not sure why Apple is waiting to turn on Apps for Apple TV.
The game will certainly change when they do. The big game changer is when I can subscribe to only the programing I want and watch it when I want to without supporting a lot of other nonsense I never watch.
Hey Rick, we got an AppleTV for xmas – didn’t want it, but it arrived anyway. IT ROCKS! You need to look at it again.
In our case, we have Netflix, and an extensive collection of shows and movies on the family computer. Streaming from those two have changed our viewing habits completely.
@ Priused: correct. You read in my mind what I did not relay via the keyboard. All OS (touche’ on the trackpad).
Like I really want any version of Windows on my TV. I already have to endure it at work. Why would I want that in my home? I love the video of Gates and Conan demo-ing MS tv stuff years back. Conan is a crack up.
You are all probably correct about Steve not taking the stage on thursday but….imagine the following
Verizon CEO going on for 15 minutes about stuff I don’t care about, he seems about done starts to leave and then says “. One more thing” and Steve walks on stage. It could be the first announcement in history where it doesn’t need to be announced!
@RDS…
The long loading times with AppleTV can actually be a DNS problem, for example if you run Google DNS. Seems like the DNS location fix can interfere with the Akmai servers.
See the link:
http://joemaller.com/2577/itunes-slowdowns-with-google-dns/
This is weird coming from me, considering I am a long-time max user, but I do think that this has potential. My roommate has an HTPC, and while Windows is a pile of shit, Windows Media Center is quite nice. It’s like a TiVo with no subscription. He said that he hasn’t had any problems yet, but we’ll see.
Games are nice, I guess. But, the majority of viewing I do is on regular cable and Netflix. It would sure be nice if the new ATV had a pass through so regular broadcasts could be viewed. It would also be nice if one remote control that controlled the ATV and cable stations could be used. I think this would hit more of the mainstream users than games.
I doubt Steve Jobs will be at CES. If Steve Jobs is going to announce the long rumoured VZ iPhone on stage, he will be doing it at a completely separate media event in San Francisco, California.
Microsloth’s “AppleTV killer” is a good, old-fashioned sledge hammer. Just lift, swing and demolish. Voila! No more AppleTV.
Microsloth is like an over-the-hill, punch-drunk prize fighter who shouts aggressive challenges at the reigning champ as though he could possibly do anything more than get himself killed if he actually stepped into the ring. Microsloth obviously has no clue how utterly ridiculous they look when they make such outlandish claims.
Ahh… Winderz and polish… like oil and water. Even when you use a blender they eventually separate.
“Microsoft’s going to make a splash in [the television] market with a stripped-down version of Windows tailored for set-top boxes and connected TVs…”
More like a splash next to your brown Zune.
“We want to use our iPads with our Apple TVs to play Angry Birds on our 60-inch HDTVs.”
Did I mention that AppleTV is only 720p? You will be angry, not the birds, seeing all the pixelated crap.
Twice the price and you must buy it….largely because the Windows boxes have a polished and familiar TV-program guide that makes it easy to blend and navigate both online and broadcast content.” WOW, great selling point, thanks for passing that on, you’ve won me-NOT. AND it has a stripped down version of Windows. Which one is that, Home basic, basic? More garbage from the Tech writers that will be believed by the unwise MS/Windows sufferers.
That’ll be one extra-LARGE blue screen of death.
It is going to be DOA just like Google TV was. It is a XBox without the games. Apple TV has a cleaner interface than the XBox Netflix etc. Apple can change the game with one swoop buy giving developers APIs to make apps for the ATV. It is going to happen. Can you imagine playing a game on the ATV while your iOS device is a controller. Come on Apple strike a blow to the game consoles!!
I first started using Google TV when the Logitech Revue came out. As a DISH employee I was provided with some early access and fell in love with it.
Ballmer T Clowns CES 2011 slogans:
+Microsoft: Discover where do want to go today by looking where Apple was three years ago.
+Microsoft: We like to lead from the rear.
+Microsoft: We like our strategy. We like it a lot.
Even though I love apple products I still prefer my 5Tb home theatre PC running windows 7 media center. I use 4 HD digital tv tuners to record all my tv shows.
But if M$ do this right, they could have a great product. Apple tv is useless to me, I want to watch tv shows that I record myself.
@Elias
O please get over yourself. Google tv sucks. It cant do anything. Everyone has it blocked.
Anyway what is microsoft going to bring or google for that matter that roku, wd, and apple and sony have ot already tried?
Roku is 59 and 99 apple is 99 why are the others going to go over with a higher price?
I can not wait to see Ballmer-the-loser to get on stage and start to sweat like hell. I am wondering how many saliva Ballmer-the-loser will spit toward audiences?!
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