"but, who would pay $150 for this product standalone when you can get it in a new Dell PC for $400."
Since you just got a MCE machine from dell, I'm sure you are aware that you cannot actually buy a MCE PC with the TV functionality we are talking about for less than $900. You can get a Dell with MCE loaded on it for $600, but it won't have a TV tuner installed.
I'm a big fan of MCE, but do i think it's ready for the mass market? probably not.
The mass market will be sold through cable/satellite companies. Of that, I'm relatively sure. The ability to do dual tuners from a single STB is too attractive a feature to ignore. Cable companies also have a significant advantage in pricing and distribution, and the low hanging fruit will not be swayed to spend more to get the bells and whistles offered by MCE or the highly touted user interface of TiVo.
CableCard may lessen the stranglehold that cable companies have on features like dual tuners (PIP, etc), but I'll reserve judgement on whether it really levels the playing field until I see dualtuner cable card offerings from TiVo (not due until 2006) and M$ (rumored to be added with a MCE2005 update). Even then, TVs that incorporate DVR features are probably better positioned to appeal to J6P. Now either M$ or TiVo may try to be the underlying software for these TVs or for future cable/satellite offerings, but the standalone market, as it stands now, will not be a huge seller, IMO. The networked eHome is just too fanciful for poor Joe. |
