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Tech companies will fight for your living room

6 January 2007 5:08 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 6 comments

In the past few years we have seen Apple bring a digital music player to the market, the iPod, which has so far completely held off competition. We've seen mobile music phones emerge but fail to have the same impact thus far. We've also seen video capabilities added to portable devices and the next generation of consoles putting an emphasis on high definition video content.

However, right now, some of the world's largest electronics giants are going to clash over which one can dominate the world's living rooms with their equipment. With services such as iTunes offering TV show and movie downloads, there is a reason to close the gap between PCs and the other consumer electronics equipment in your home.

Apple will soon launch it's "iTV" device which can use a wireless network to stream video content from the iTunes software straight to your television. The iPod maker's arch enemy, Microsoft, is also expected to outline its home media server, code-named "Quattro," at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week.

The Xbox 360 console has media extension features built in, but to get the most out of it you need to have Microsoft's Windows Media Center OS installed somewhere in your home and with the operating system's struggle over the past few years, that does limit what the average consumer can get from it.

Other brand name manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Philips Electronics and Sony all have plans to unveil similar equipment this year also. All will face each other this year despite the lack of noticeable consumer demand for the equipment. "It's a market that has been slow to take off," says NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin. He estimated that only a few thousand of these devices are sold each month.

Of course, there are other problems that consumers face, like the limited number of homes that do already use wireless networks. For those that do use wireless networks, these devices have not been that easy to get up and running flawlessly either. Never-the-less, for those of us that are interested in sharing our multimedia throughout the home between PC and CE equipment, let the competition commence.

For quite a lot of multimedia enthusiasts, it will be hard for the electronics giants to match the usability and sheer brilliance of software like Xbox Media Center (XBMC).

Source:
Reuters

Permalink to this article

Apple TV launch delayed until next month (27 February 2007)

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Apple officially announces iPhone (9 January 2007)

Sony goes big with Bravia (9 January 2007)

Lionsgate offers HD movies to Xbox 360 users (9 January 2007)

Cingular to provide service for Apple? (9 January 2007)

Gates issues obvious statement of the year (8 January 2007)

Xbox 360 10 million sold? IPTV support? (7 January 2007)

UK wants to build gaming academy (6 January 2007)

Electronics sales expected to set record numbers in 2007 (6 January 2007)

Xbox 360 HD movies help to outperform rivals (4 January 2007)

Apple's iTV launch to escape Macworld Expo (3 January 2007)

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Discuss this article!
peomp (Newbie) 6 January 2007 16:50
All right i am First Xbox Media Center....Interesting will buy a 360...i have a PS3 [ + quote]
Steve83 (Member) 7 January 2007 8:13
"...the lack of noticeable consumer demand for the equipment." ...and the further lack of interest in this article. :-) File this, AND all the new equipment, under "Who Cares?" [ + quote]
Rikoshay (Member) 8 January 2007 14:40
It's not entirely useless... it got you to answer it. :D Honestly, if I were to consider any of these, I'd probably go with HP; they seem to be the only company that hasn't made any ridiculous claims or DOA products recently. Although, that could be regarded as a biased decision. :P As well, it has been pretty slow so far when it comes to what I see as interesting. Not much in the field of electronics seems really appealing to me anymore. I'm still waiting for HVD's to become commonplace before I upgrade beyond DVD's. :D [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 8 January 2007 16:03
Quote: ...and the further lack of interest in this article. :-) File this, AND all the new equipment, under "Who Cares?" Don't have an actual comment to make? Don't make one. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 8 January 2007 22:46
I just saw the report of the ces on the new in Australia and it was amazing the tech they have for the kitchen. But i doubt my mum would want a computer in the kitchen :) [ + quote]
solarf (Member) 9 January 2007 10:14
I would love a computer in the kitchen... Im just the iTV sounds interesting tho. [ + quote]