Speaking of Liberate.
James,
We should spend more time talking about the Liberate relationship. It is potentially the 2nd most important partner to our future besides Intel, (unless someone like Motorola, Palm, or Qualcomm comes along.)
STB is an extremely dynamic market with the convergence of many different types of devices and services such as Time Shift Box (TiVo), Game Consoles (PlayStation), Video On Demand, Interactive Programming, Voice Over (cable-based) IP, DVD Players, Web Functionality, and Video Conferencing. Today, no one has figured out what is the right mix of features to offer in its STB.
Sony has put DVD/Game/Web-funcations on a single box. This solution is a pure client solution. Liberate is entering this market from the Television and network side, addressing service issues by cable and sattellite operators on both the server end and the client end.
I don't know any thing specific about why Microsoft is missing deadlines, but I would assume that the problems are on its server end. I am not sure what WebTV has been doing, and whether Microsoft really had 100% control of it. One of the major cause for Microsoft's delay is trying to provide a 100% in house solution, something that doesn't happen any more in the Internet age.
Microsoft's failure in STB should be an MBA case study. How could such a powerful company, with essentially unlimited people and money fail so badly? Microsoft has a great leader in Gates, who saw the importance of STB a long time ago. He didn't hesitate spending billions as he bought WebTV, invested in cable service companies, and built a whole new OS in WinCE and a suite of applications. After billions of dollars and years of development, Microsoft got beaten by Liberate. For one, its WebTV group in Silicon Valley certainly didn't like interacting with the Win CE group. Secondly, Win CE was trying to be a one size fits all platform that didn't fit anything.
Microsoft's failure is STB is similar to its failure in PDA and other embedded markets. Maybe Microsoft is getting it now, but the clock is ticking. Once cable service companies choose their platform, it will be really hard for them to switch to something else.
Go Liberate. The STB lily pond may be the 3rd one to flourish after TMS and Last-Mile Modems.
Khan |
