To all,
More interesting insight on Mr. Bill's plans for Web TV, cable, et al.
I have posted an excerpt below.
BILL GATES, THE CABLE GUY
Will his technology for digital TV become the standard?
businessweek.com
But Gates wasn't simply out to make some new friends among America's cable moguls. Having established a measure of goodwill with his $1 billion, Gates is asking the cable industry for a little favor in return. He'd like cable companies to let him design a new generation of set-top boxes for digital TV. His design includes a cable modem for high-speed data communications, enabling consumers to cruise the World Wide Web on the TV. Gates' come-on: His design would cost about half what technology now hitting the market costs, thus making it a far easier sell.
NEW PLATFORM. If the cable moguls bite, Gates could be adding a new domain to the Microsoft empire. The boxes would use Microsoft software, including the Windows CE operating system, and that would establish Microsoft technology as the standard for all sorts of consumer programming and services to be delivered over digital TV and the Internet. This would represent an all-new technology ''platform''--like the PC itself. Microsoft ''is putting itself in position, right in the middle, writing the software that controls all that,'' says an executive familiar with Microsoft's proposal. Gates wants ''to make sure the cable guys do not develop an independent base without him to do this.''
Gates is moving swiftly to seal a deal. He has been meeting every few weeks with the top executives of the big companies that control Cable Labs, the cable-TV industry's research and development consortium. The next meeting, on July 7 in New York, will likely include Gates, Tele-Communications Inc.'s John Malone, Comcast's Roberts, Cox Communications' James Robbins, and Rogers Communications' Edward Rogers--all key participants at earlier meetings.
Has anyone heard any results from the meeting? Should be interesting.
Regards,
Brian |
