MSFT is on a roll and moving fast,
Just announced - they are buying a stake in NXTL and will use it to offer services and links to the MSN
Combine this with the ATT deal and reports on MSFT net appliances and Windows CE from BW and other publications.
Once again I tip my hat to Bill Gates
Article from MSNBC on Win CE and net appliances
MICROSOFT may be aiming to take its software from the desktop to the set-top to nearly everything with a battery or a plug, many analysts believe. (Microsoft is a partner in MSNBC.)
What's at stake is nothing less than the future of computing and the Internet.
So-called “Internet appliances” — everything from Internet-enabled PDAs and cell phones to portable Internet music players — will be a $15.3 billion market by 2002, according to International Data Corporation. Worldwide shipments of the devices will reach 55.7 million units a year in 2002 compared to 5.9 million devices shipped in 1993 — with a total 151 million of them installed, the consulting firm estimates.
“Five years ago we used to be wandering around to companies and shaking them by the lapels, saying when are you going to put a computer in a television set,” said Andrew Lippman, associate director of the MIT Media Laboratory. “The reason was if you designed and defined the interface to that corner of the living room, you would own that portion of the living room now and forevermore.”
But owning the corner of the living room is only the first step. What Microsoft is actually buying is “mental real estate,” said Lippman. That is, people will learn how to use their Windows CE television set and not want to relearn another system in the future.
“If Windows CE becomes the standard for large numbers of televisions, when people move, they're going to want that kind of box in their next set, won't they?” Lippman asked. “And they're presumably going to want that interface in other devices of that ilk… Maybe that box will connect to other boxes that also run Windows CE. Maybe that box will be buying the mindshare of people who use television.”
And that's why the deal may be the key to the emerging Internet Appliance market, said Rick Doherty, a consultant with Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y.
‘Once the box is in the home and it has Windows CE and a Windows server behind it, it's much easier to attach to and bring that content to other Internet devices,'
— RICK DOHERTY
Envisioneering Group “Once the box is in the home and it has Windows CE and a Windows server behind it, it's much easier to attach to and bring that content to other Internet devices in the home — some will be wired and some will be wireless” said Doherty. “You can imagine that content from a Windows server will look best on a CE device.”
The AT&T deal may also be the latest blow in Microsoft's war against Sun Microsystems. Sun's Java programming language — with it's “Write Once, Run Anywhere” promise — and its Jini networking counterpart has become the early favorite among developers as the guts that will run and connect all the devices.
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