The two major initiatives in the consumer market this year have to do with digital media, and they are from Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft’s is the broad Media Center Edition that encompasses the home and provides your music on a variety of products, while Apple’s is more targeted at just PCs (both Apple and Windows) and the iPod. The two companies overlap in only one area — the Windows PC — and even here they differ in approach.
Microsoft is a business leader. Their development has been in monopoly building, not technology. They have not developed even one new or innovative thing ever in their entire history, other than buiness models that would eliminate competition, etc... Apple is the technology leader, which is why Microsoft has copied them over and over and over again. It is really a low blow to relegate Apple to marketing, but that is your forte' Rob--backhanded compliments. Apple is not stupid, they know a good marketing campaign when they buy one. I guess, in Rob's view, it's not so much what technology a company invents, it's more important what they purchase. Apple has bought their marketing campaigns, they have not created them. They have however, created the original PC (the Apple II) and the original modern GUI based computer, which they built from the extremely rudimentary and whithering example originally put forth by Xerox. The media PC is not even worth mentioning, it's just a PC, no wonder no one is excited by that, it's just a poor rip-off of the Macintosh (once again), it's not really any different from a normal windows PC. Apple and Mac OS X are the technology leaders, they just do not have huge marketshare yet. And, for most businesses, windows will get the job done, it's just that, compared to a Mac, it's a very and limited version of a real Macintosh. Mac users know this, this is why they are so 'zealous' etc... it's not due to the marketing/style, etc... Even Bill Gates, if you ever listened to what he has said about Apple, he gets the fact that they are the leaders, he just doesn't make much of it (for obvious reasons).
Rob, we all know your propensity for self delusion but you really need to see a doctor at this point. It has never been said that you are grounded or that you have a rational view of anything Microsoft, but this takes the cake, it's time to get some serious mental health treatment! After how many years now of Microsoft selling their digital hub solution and they now have 5,000 sales total in the world and 99% of those sales are from HP. This dog won't hunt, even though it IS a dog, there are precious few people other than yourself, that are stupid enough to actually spend their own money to own the Microsoft Media Solution.
"While Apple (and, before Apple, Sony) talked about the PC as a digital hub earlier, Microsoft is the first to actually deliver on the concept. (The other attempts, including Microsoft's own initial one, were more peer to peer.) To make the hub concept work you need more than PCs -- you also need client devices. And to get there on a large scale you need partners, and this is what allowed Microsoft to introducing this market-leading offering." 1. Until I see an Media Center Extender that works simply and reliably in sending multiple video streams thruout a house, it hasn't delivered on the [digital hub] concept. Current video bandwidth and 802.11g don't cut it. Evidenced by low sales, MS has jumped the gun with a product that will only intrigue early adopters and fiddlers, similar to Creative's early hard-disk drive music player. 2. Why do you seem to assume that a digital hub can't work on a peer-to-peer basis, where each device (camera, camcorder, pda/smartphone, iPod, TV/DVR, display, speakers) acquires or presents media, and the PC/Mac is used to manipulate/enhance, store, and network that media? 3. For the Media Center, MS' partners are PC mfrs encroaching on TV/DVR/Display territory. For the digital hub, why can't a PC mfr/Apple instead partner with TV/DVR/display mfrs instead?
Again Mr Enderle shows lack of respect and doubts to Apple and ovation to MS. Apple is much more than iPod. Way more!!! I guess that Enderle never heard of Quicktime... but thats ok. Has Media Center been a success? You know the answer.. Nope. It is not a complete failure, but cerntenly has fall way short of expectation up to today. Apple drive for "Digital Hub" is more appealing and usefull to me, than Media Center. It is closer to what home user expect, but still perception is; Macintosh is "incompatible", propietary in term of "Non-Standard" and so on.
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Microsoft, Apple and the HP Gambit
Posted by: Rob Enderle November 15, 2004 05:00 AMThe two major initiatives in the consumer market this year have to do with digital media, and they are from Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft’s is the broad Media Center Edition that encompasses the home and provides your music on a variety of products, while Apple’s is more targeted at just PCs (both Apple and Windows) and the iPod. The two companies overlap in only one area — the Windows PC — and even here they differ in approach.
The media PC is not even worth mentioning, it's just a PC, no wonder no one is excited by that, it's just a poor rip-off of the Macintosh (once again), it's not really any different from a normal windows PC.
Apple and Mac OS X are the technology leaders, they just do not have huge marketshare yet. And, for most businesses, windows will get the job done, it's just that, compared to a Mac, it's a very and limited version of a real Macintosh. Mac users know this, this is why they are so 'zealous' etc... it's not due to the marketing/style, etc... Even Bill Gates, if you ever listened to what he has said about Apple, he gets the fact that they are the leaders, he just doesn't make much of it (for obvious reasons).
After how many years now of Microsoft selling their digital hub solution and they now have 5,000 sales total in the world and 99% of those sales are from HP. This dog won't hunt, even though it IS a dog, there are precious few people other than yourself, that are stupid enough to actually spend their own money to own the Microsoft Media Solution.
1. Until I see an Media Center Extender that works simply and reliably in sending multiple video streams thruout a house, it hasn't delivered on the [digital hub] concept. Current video bandwidth and 802.11g don't cut it. Evidenced by low sales, MS has jumped the gun with a product that will only intrigue early adopters and fiddlers, similar to Creative's early hard-disk drive music player.
2. Why do you seem to assume that a digital hub can't work on a peer-to-peer basis, where each device (camera, camcorder, pda/smartphone, iPod, TV/DVR, display, speakers) acquires or presents media, and the PC/Mac is used to manipulate/enhance, store, and network that media?
3. For the Media Center, MS' partners are PC mfrs encroaching on TV/DVR/Display territory. For the digital hub, why can't a PC mfr/Apple instead partner with TV/DVR/display mfrs instead?
I guess that Enderle never heard of Quicktime... but thats ok.
Has Media Center been a success? You know the answer.. Nope. It is not a complete failure, but cerntenly has fall way short of expectation up to today.
Apple drive for "Digital Hub" is more appealing and usefull to me, than Media Center. It is closer to what home user expect, but still perception is; Macintosh is "incompatible", propietary in term of "Non-Standard" and so on.