By Michael Parsons, 4 October 2004 09:15
NEWS Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said at a press briefing in London on Sunday that consumer take-up of digital technology in the home is at a 'tipping point', which could lead to a dramatic increase in sales for converged devices that integrate video, audio and computer technology.
The industry has talked up the idea that computers will finally move from the home office to the living room for many years, but Ballmer said he thinks this theory may be about to become a market reality.
"I think we are close to the tipping point, to where we may get a device that can take on critical mass. There will be an explosion in demand. People werenÂ’t really sure where these new devices fitted in. At two hundred bucks, maybe, but at three hundred or four hundred bucks, it was too hard to bootstrap the device type," he said.
There are of course no prizes for guessing Ballmer's pick to win the battle of the digital home – and who he fingers as the loser.
"There is no way that you can get there with Apple. The critical mass has to come from the PC, or a next-generation video device," he said.
Ballmer said he's especially interested in "very basic end-to-end IP-based set-top box devices," which he said Microsoft is testing right now with Telecom Italia and Swisscom. Trials are set to start with such a device in the UK, although he declined to name the partners involved.
"We’ve seen a surge of interest from the telcos, as everyone is looking for a triple play – voice, video, data," he said.
Ballmer pointed out that elements of the converged digital landscape have been around for a while, but only now have complete systems built up that seem to be getting consumers involved.
"We have had media technology built for years – Apple, Sony, RealNetworks, have been there for years. What's changed is that now you have the format, the player, the device and the service, and that’s what we will have with the launch of Microsoft Media Player 10, the official launch of the Microsoft Network (MSN), and Microsoft's Portable Media Center," he said.
Comments
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1. Ruprecht
Well Steve, if what I saw at IBC is anything to go by the future ain't Microsoft...your guys couldn't even get their stand straight let alone their story.
Media Player 10 or Quicktime H.264/AVC, hmmmm let me see.
The future of the digital home may not be a Mac, but it certainly isn't a PC with a 'hacked', bloated OS, and since when did Apple stick to the rules?
2. anonymous
This guy is so funny. Does he live in a Cartoon?
3. Rod Banner
Balmer is very amusing. If anyone has ever tried to create a useful WiFi network that covers a WHOLE house they will know how out of touch he is. Apple has created a plug and play solution where as all the other manufacturers make life so complicated it takes a couple of days for typical consumers to make it functional. Apple get it when it comes to quenching technology complexity - they make it your friend. The home will belong to Apple or Sony or Nokia way before it belongs to Microsoft.
4. anonymous
Oh Steve, Steve, Steve. What are you thinking? Deliver some quality grade consumer apps that people actually want and then we'll talk. Until then stop making an ass of yourself.
5. Roger Huffadine
Its so sad when people get old and loose their sense of reality.
My condolences to Steve and his loved ones.
6. anonymous
So we need a device for the living room, something that allows us to use all of our digital data in a friendly simple manner. Music, Video, Pictures. Funny I thought I had that with an Xbox. OK it isn't a standard off the shelf XBox but coupled with a wireless network adapter it does everything that I want it to do. If Microsoft worked on making the "Xbox Media Center" an official supported part of the Xbox instead of attempting to force it to be a games only machine, I think they'd have a winner. Instead they made it so you can't even watch DVDs without an addon.
Why can't the convergence happen on a system that already lives in the living room, why do we need another? It seems that this "convergence" isn't for our benefit, this convergence means tying users to a suppliers paid for content. I want to choose where my content comes from, I don't want to be forced to buy from a particular supplier, unfortunately proprietry encryption and digital rights will spoil choice for everyone (and that includes Apple). It will be down to the underground software developers to write the software that we want and need.
7. Mandy
aha haaaah aha haha haaa ahahaha aha ha..aha..!
Steve Ballmer - the man who never fails to give me a good laugh on a Monday morning.
I'm sure Apple will take your comments on board Steve, I can imagine they'll get as big a laugh out of them as the rest of us have.
8. Charles Judd
To some people, Mr Ballmer is one of the most repugnent personalities in the industry, to others (perhaps the majority) just laughable and to yet others an object of pity - despite his billionaire status.
But whatever, to my mind there is no doubt that he represents, and plays no small part in, the present sterile climate which seems to have infected Microsoft.
They haven't got anything right for some considerable time and they've never been so vulnerable.
It was always clear that if they couldn't smash the opposition with their pecuniary might, they'd resort to other tactics - but this is pathetic.
Can you imagine a spokesman for Coca Cola, Sony, or BMW 'warning' the public not to buy the rival product.
This is a real sign of both weakness and the infamous Microsoft bad taste.
9. anonymous
Those Apple die hards never keep up with the times. Two days to get a WiFi system up and running on a PC. Two minutes is more like. VPN about 20 seconds. I could go on but I know I'd be wasting my breath. I like Macs but feel that the gap has closed now and that Microsoft have covered all the options while Apple were not looking. Apple need to pull something out of the hat if it intends to put up any sort of a fight.
10. Jon Hill
Okay, now Steve - listen carefully.
Denial is a terrible thing, which can blind you from a truth which you must confront. It's okay, everyone else knows the truth, you just have to admit it, then you'll be happy.
You want to work for Apple.
Hey, it's okay, we understand. You are crap, and Apple are not, but that's the way it always has been. You don't have to put on this show any longer.
All of this spouting off you're doing is just misdirected rage, due to the frustration of working where you do. You're just overcompensating for your secret lust. You want to be part of Cupertino. It's okay, just admit it.
Instead of wetting your pants in a rage all the time, just give Mr Jobs a ring, I'm sure he'll take you on; maybe in the PR department....
....then again, maybe not.
Maybe cleaning toilets? Yes, that would fit. After all, you have so much experience shifting manure, don't you?
11. Aaron
yes Apple sucks look at my iBook it just keeps going and going I wish I had a PC so I could deal with all these Great virus, Addware etc.. and that would give me a reason to reformat ever couple of months...I think that would be really exciting!! so I can make my own music, Edit/Capture video, transfer my still pictures and Burn DVDs gee thats no fun ....lets face it being able to get a virus in 20 minutes of surfing the NET now there"s excitment!! is Formating a hard drive Fun ?? reinstalling XP this is the Best part!
I don't want a computer that last's a long time.... I want to upgrade ever 6 months! and deliver's a full multimedia capability who needs that !
12. Brad Caldwell
Balmer is an idiot. One more reason to buy a Macintosh. Lets put that little company from Redmond in thier place!!!
13. WindozeBloze
Micro$haft is truly the "Evil Empire"! Everything that they touch just seems to be another grab for more of your money.
14. Andy R
XBox not an option. Don't get me wrong - the XBox is one thing Microsoft do really well, but there's no way it's ever going to be a media convergence centre in it's current form.
Why ? Because the thing sounds like a vacuum cleaner when it's turned on.
Now. Who do we know that's renowned for making fanless, super-quiet computers ?
Ah. That'll be those pesky Apple guys again !
15. anonymous
Clearly, the HP/Apple partnership is intended to solve this problem.
16. Mike Watson
The reason we don't need another device in the living room is....We already have one! The TV with cable or satellite gives us all the video and music we need. Add any or all of VCR/TiVO/DVD player and what more could you want? What did you say? Music or video on demand? Microsoft/Sony/Apple are no closer than cable or satellite on that front and almost everyone has some sort of music in the living room from phonograph (they still exist) to portable music player (boombox to iPOD) to full blown stereo system. And XM and Sirius are making inroads in the living room too. Oh, and what about video games?
A converged IP device is still QUITE a ways off because there are just too many options that give us high enough quality at a much lower cost than the pricepoints Steve Ballmer gives us in his little blurb. This is not about Apple vs. Microsoft, folks. This is about cost and convenience, infrastructure and footprint in the AMERICAN home.
17. Totte Alm
Micosoft might have something in the hat, lies. They are marketleaders in F.U.D. so they might scare a couple of hundreds of million people to think that not going Windows will make then "less compatible", and helping microsoft with that is the united world IT press, so scared of loosing Microsoft ad money, so the print anything that will assure ad money. We've seen it before, and Ballmer probably knows what kind of market campains (published as technology news in the media) that will roll across the globe in the next 12 months. So, at the end, we will have a several millions of happy Apple users claiming the digital hub works, and several hundreds of million Windows users, all claiming "the digital hub is a myth".
18. Mauricio Babilonia
Poor Balmer. Envy can be so ugly.
19. Cap'n Richard
No, seriously, he's right guys.
... And the world is flat so don't go sailing any big oceans in case you fall off the edge into space. Stay where it is safe and warm and the technology is reassuringly creaky.
Be warned; take just one bite of the Apple from the Tree of Knowledge and your eyes will be opened to the difference between good and bad software. And then where would we all be?
[Er, Running OS X , maybe?]
20. anonymous
"We’ve seen a surge of interest from the telcos..."
Way to go Steve! Nobody knows what is gonna blow the doors off the end user like a Telco! Note to Ballmer: Read your own material and see if you can keep a straight face. I couldn't.
21. anonymous
This guy has absolutely no business sense.
No sooner is the case for suspension of remedies considered by the European Union's Court of First Instance on Friday last then we have this outburst.
It appears that either MS executives are poorly trained or are trained to disregard any requirements of anti-trust regulators and accompanying legal processes.
On the question of MP3 piracy perhaps Mr Ballmer is unaware that most file sharing networks do not work with Macintosh Operating Systems. One of the reasons why Apple was able to succeed with iTunes is that it started as a Mac only implementation and was hugely successful in the Mac Community because of the Mac Community.
Mac users buy, not borrow, software. The same is true for music. Most of the music in iTunes users libraries is loaded from CD's owned by the users. This aspect was not even mentioned.
22. David Moore
What a long list of Ms knockers in the comments. My money stays on Microsoft to "own" the home in the same way they now own the office. (I may not like it, but) if they don't have anything they need for the home market they will buy it!) For an indication, watch the cellphone OS market.
23. anonymous
More bull from Ballmer
The man whose company gave us the most hack-ridden OS and semi-finished products in business history.
fortunately there are alternatives. He must be more worried about Apple than we thought given these cheap remarks. Microsoft should get its own house in order before making claims about next-gen products etc etc as usual.
24. anonymous
My Windows colleague finally switched to Mac and keeps calling me to exclaim "this is so easy". Ballmer and his merry band have brainwashed people into believing running a PC entails endless downloads, upgrades and security scares.
I just upgraded Office for Mac and its embellishments have screwed up my email - thanks Steve, another triumph!
And he seems too arrogant to admit it.
25. anonymous
Who is this dongle? I have to use MS crap at work. Why would I want to infect my home with a load of buggy, virus ridden, ugly excuse for software. It's a bit rich for MS to call iPod owners thieves, when MS and Ballmer have been screwing their customers for years.
26. anonymous
I have been a two (sometimes three) platform computer veteran for almost twenty years. As a professor and lecturer of classical chinese clinical techniques, I have had the opportunity in my travels to compare and work with the "three" major desktop and laptop operating systems in the computer industry, Microsoft, IBM and Apple all over the world. Without question the Apple computers, their operating systems and their various other products (I own and still use a perfectly functioning Newton 2000 that I bought new and a G4 Alu Powerbook) are the most stable, cross platform compatable and reliable hardware and software porducts that I have encountered. Due to the fact that I also practice and give clinical supervision, this reliability is important to the well being of my patients and the patients of those physicians and therapist that I supervise.
If your interested in a Utopia that looks like the other software meltdowns and bug fixes that have plagued the micorosoft community for years then steve is your guy.
Microsoft has the buying power to "Own the Home" as one reader has put it, but they have demonstrated that buying power is not gaurentee of quality. For those who still continue to believe that three million flies can't be wrong Ballmer is right on the ball. For the rest that are capable of making IT descisions Apple is the only choice
27. anonymous
You can tell that Microsoft is nervous. They've been sitting on this LongWait project telling everyone that it's going to be the next big thing. Then they scrap every decent idea that would make you consider shelling out the $$$.
Now with cable internet, you don't have to be on your Windows machine for it to get 165 new spyware apps, or the latest virus that attacks the same vulnerability that was suppose to be patched in last months lame attempt at a fix.
Sounds like a great OS to me. I would love to have to have antivirus, pop up blockers, and 5 different spyware sweepers running before I get online.
I've got a B & W G3. It's runnin fine, and it'll be outperforming the newer Wintel machines for some time to come. Thanks Apple.
28. Pete
For one... you're from Cana-Duha, i wouldn't expect a smarter comment.
for two... i think you're bitter from every time you walk into a software store, and have to be told that "oh, no... we don't have anything that will work on a mac"
or a hard ware store... or anywhere realy.
29. anonymous
One of the reasons it's taken so long for nice small digital machines to emerge is that the operating system was closed