Xbox Live messaging threat to TV and telephone

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 10 April 2007 05:16

Opinion and Analysis

When Microsoft launched the latest version of Windows Media Center at a consumer home electronics show a couple of years ago claiming that the PC would be the new lounge room entertainment hub it all sounded nice in theory. However, with the progressive release of new capabilities on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, not only is the living room PC dead but a very real threat to conventional TV and even the telephone is looming.

The fact of the matter is consumers don't want a computer in their lounge room - not even a user friendly Mac. A games console that plays videos, can surf the web, can communicate by IM and can stream TV or movies, now that's different. Microsoft, Sony and Apple now all recognize this and it's game on for control of the lounge room.

I didn't include Nintendo in the above lot because that Japanese company has already made clear its intention to stick to its knitting and remain a games specialist and, to that end, it is doing spectacularly well. However, even Nintendo has embraced the Internet as an integral part of its next-gen consoles.

Microsoft, Apple and Sony all believe they have bigger fish to fry than mere gaming - they want the living room entertainment market. With Xbox 360, Microsoft declared its intention from the outset when it gave the console video streaming capabilities. Apple, which recently dropped computer from its name, has followed suit with Apple TV. Sony has declared its hand by tying the fortunes of its high powered console to the take-up of Blu-ray high definition video.

With the onset of IPTV in the form of new services such as Joost, a console that can both surf the net and present online TV shows on the big screen, could present a huge threat to conventional TV.

Now Microsoft has upped the ante by leveraging off its huge Windows Live Messenger instant messaging network and announcing that it will soon release an Xbox 360 which incorporates a QWERTy keyboard. This could in fact be a very strategic move because it moves the realm of text, voice and video messaging away from the study and into the living room.

Thus, the Xbox 360 will soon become a reasonably priced communications hub located in the center of the home, the traditional domain of the family telephone. However, not everyone uses Windows Live Messenger, so if Microsoft is smart it will enable Xbox 360 owners to download rival messaging services such as Skype, just as they can on PCs.

One can imagine in the near future that instead of constantly chatting to our friends all day on the telephone, we use our games console to pause our favorite Internet-based TV show and chat to our friends using a mixture of text, voice and video through our wide screen LCD or plasma high definition TV sceen. Now that's a thought that may give traditional telecoms carriers and TV networks som sleepless nights.