TCI Seeks Variety in Software And Suppliers for TV Boxes nytimes.com
Times net watcher John Markoff is primary byline on this one, he was secondary on the previous story. His analysis is that Bill got the best of the deal here, Malone may have been getting a bit too clever for his own good.
By using Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java programming language as a counterweight to a consumer version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, Malone is trying to relegate Microsoft to the same status as his other vendors.
...
Indeed, despite his efforts to create a more competitive marketplace, Malone may have repeated over the weekend the blunder made years ago by IBM.
"Think of this as a poker table where most of the chips say Windows and William Gates is now holding them," said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering Inc., an industry consulting firm in Seaford, N.Y. In Malone's vision of the future interactive cable industry, the line between traditional television channels and personal computer software applications will rapidly be blurred.
Of course, I get sort of confused here, as on the whole convergence thing in general. Windows CE ain't Windows, it doesn't run Windows software in general and it isn't even x86 based. This article talks about the settop boxes needing memory for Java, but they're going to need memory if they're going to run IE, too. It's all a bit strange. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if Bill's outsmarted Malone, but TCI has been slow in the past, they may be slow in the future. Meanwhile, where's Navio? Where's Netscape? Where's Sun's Diba? Have to wait and see, as usual.
Cheers, Dan. |
