To me, the X Box is a conundrum. I don't really grok what it has to do with the Gorilla Game. As such, I don't understand why Microsoft would commit so many resources to it.
Now, I don't have any ability to call a winner in the PS2 vs. X Box battle, but PS2 obviously starts out with a big advantage, and the two products seem comparable technologically (although you'd expect the X Box to better, since it's newer).
BTW, the potential losses (according to analysts) are on the order of $1 billion, not 10. As for X Box being part of a war of attrition with Sony... why would MSFT want to go to war with Sony? At this point, the enemy is obviously AOL (with Sun & ORCL still relevant, and REAL also interesting). If anything, Sony should be a close partner. I understand that Sony used to make a lot of noise about taking MSFT on, but they seem to have backed down from that.
Hindsight is 20/20, and things were surely different a couple of years ago when this was started. And not for nothing, but Gates & Ballmer do, like, know what they're doing. But still, I don't get the X Box (although it does look very cool).
I'm not saying that it will be a fiasco (it could, but Microsoft does have a way of sticking with things; we've faced tougher threats than the PS2). But I don't exactly see it turning the company around, or causing the next tornado. |
