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Hi RTs,
For those who are interested in the Microsoft vs gov't, you may overlook
the current and future direction of the technology. Check out this
site:
http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost.asp?s2=canadianbusiness&s3=news&f=991106/120200.html
It seems that American gov't is helping Sony by fighting Microsoft.
American gov't used to throw the anti-trust suit against IBM. However,
the technology advanced so fast that the suit became obsolete. It is
possible that Sony may win the next round.
The address of this site is too long and it may be broken into 2 parts.
So, let me paste the article here:
Is Microsoft prepared to play
high-tech hardball with
Sony?
Gates must soon deal with popular
PlayStation console
Don Tapscott
National Post
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft
Corp.'s Bill Gates uses his keynote
speech next weekend at the mammoth
Comdex show in Las Vegas to outline a
plan of attack against his soon-to-be
arch-rival Nobuyuki Idei, president and
chief executive of Sony Corp.
The U.S. software giant has been
rumoured for months to be preparing a
multi-billion-dollar assault against Sony
to
establish Microsoft as the company that
will ultimately control the networked
multimedia devices of tomorrow's homes.
You may wonder what Sony could be
doing that could cause Microsoft so
much worry. As every personal
computer user knows, the Microsoft Windows
operating system
has a virtual hammerlock on the industry.
But it is doubtful that many of us will be
using personal computers in
our living rooms, kitchens or bedrooms
five or 10 years from now.
What was conceived as a computing device
is now being asked to
deal with growing volumes of high-quality
audio and video. As the
Internet evolves from being a conduit of
information into a conduit
of entertainment, increasingly the PC is
the wrong tool for many
jobs. Who wants to listen to Beethoven or
watch the Titanic
hunched over their computer?
Enter Sony. They have a vision of a rich,
textured, multimedia digital
environment in the home, and at its heart
is their next generation
video game machine called Sony PlayStation
2.
Scheduled for release early next year in
Japan and a few months
later in North America, the
high-performance machine is built
around a custom state-of-the-art chip
called the Emotion Engine. It
plugs into a television or home theatre.
The unit will log on to the
Internet, be able to run high-quality
three-dimensional animations,
have a DVD-ROM drive, Dolby Digital and
Digital Theatre System
sound, USB, 32 MB of memory, and more. It
will also be cheap.
It may not run a spreadsheet program, but
the PlayStation 2 could
crush any existing PC as the home's
multimedia hub. As Sony's
boss, Mr. Idei recently told Business
Week, "I'm redesigning the
company for the networked future." The
PlayStation 2 is central to
this new vision.
Mr. Idei is also a keynote speaker at
Comdex, the day following
Mr. Gates, and the Sony executive will
trumpet the PlayStation 2
technology.
George Lucas, the director of Star Wars,
recently said he was
having trouble getting his hands on a
PlayStation 2 because it
qualifies as a super computer under
Japanese export laws.
There can be little doubt that Mr. Gates
must soon launch some
form of counterattack. The threat of the
PlayStation 2 and other
video game consoles from Sega Enterprises
Ltd. and Nintendo Co.
Ltd. is simply too big. These machines are
hugely popular, and one
in five North American homes already owns
the current version of
the PlayStation.
A report in The Wall Street Journal last
week cited speculation that
Microsoft was willing to invest $6-billion
(US) in the next few years
in developing and promoting a home video
game console
code-named X-Box. Microsoft's proposed
machine will be
manufactured to the company's
specifications by PC makers or
subcontractors, and will plug into a
television to play standard PC
games. Like the Sony machine, it will have
movie-quality
animations.
Totally controlling the device's design
and manufacture would put
Microsoft on a more even footing with the
video game console
manufacturers. The operating system it
could develop for the X-Box
could be a much leaner yet stronger
version of Windows.
When IBM invented the personal computer,
it gave other
companies ample rein to compete and create
advancements to the
many technologies involved. The upshot is
that the hardware and
software in today's computers are a heroic
patchwork of
compromises and accommodations so that
most of yesterday's
programs and devices can still function.
The X-Box would not suffer
this disadvantage.
Of course, entering into the video game
console business would be
a radical departure from Microsoft's
existing business model. With
some exceptions such as exotic keyboards
and pointing devices,
Microsoft has largely stayed away from
developing hardware and
focused on software.
But pivoting his corporation on a dime is
Mr. Gates' forte. The
change in Microsoft's direction a few
years ago prompted by the
World Wide Web's arrival will be the stuff
of corporate legend for
decades to come.
Microsoft has become the world's
wealthiest corporation because
of its prodigious intellectual capital and
its ability to sharply focus --
and when necessary, redirect -- its
awesome energies.
Don Tapscott is chairman of the Alliance
for Converging
Technologies. He may invest in or advise
companies mentioned.
Email: column@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Mervin
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