2013年5月30日星期四

Is the Xbox One Microsoft's future, or a Windows 8-level failure?

The do-everything Xbox One is Microsoft's bet that it can take over the living room and be the center of your entertainment universe. But will it be that, or just a re-run of the Windows 8 fiasco?

In announcing the new Xbox One, Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, made it clear that the company had much bigger ambitions for the new device than the old Xbox 360 gaming system. He said:

"Our ambition is to become the all-in-one system for every living room. The place where your games, TV and entertainment come alive."
The device's specs and capabilities make clear how far-reaching Microsoft's vision is. It controls your television set, including cable TV, and makes it easy to switch between gaming and TV watching. It comes with a high-definition Skype video client. It runs Hulu, Netflix and other similar streaming video services. It plays CDs (remember those?), DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs. It comes with Kinect and will work with Windows 8 devices such as tablets and smartphones. It also sports a new processor, a Blu-ray Disc drive, 500GB hard-disk drive, and Wi-Fi Direct. And under the hood, its new architecture is a combination of Xbox and the Windows kernel.

Along with all that, it comes with a hefty price tag -- $499 versus $199 for the existing Xbox 360.

Depending on your point of view, all this is either a bold move for making Microsoft services central to your life, or else a re-run of Microsoft's failed gamble on Windows 8.

Tech writer and commentator Paul Thurrot thinks it's the latter. He writes:

"Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't this weird combination of features -- TV! Video games! Online entertainment services! Skype!! -- sort of reminiscent of Windows 8? I mean, after all, you're already paying for cable TV (because if you’re not, this feature doesn't work with Xbox One anyway). And you can already get a box that works with Netflix, Hulu Plus, and every single other entertainment service on earth there is, and it costs just $99 (or even cheaper)."
His point is a good one. With Windows 8, Microsoft built a single operating system for different devices -- touchscreen tablets and traditional PCs -- and ended up satisfying no one. The same could well be true of the do-everything Xbox One. Making matters worse it its hefty price tag.

On the other hand, the battle among tech companies today isn't between discrete pieces of hardware and software. It's between entire ecosystems. And the Xbox One has clearly been designed from the ground up to be an ecosystem platform, not a gaming device.

As a platform the Xbox One has a lot going for it -- but also a major problem, its price tag. At $499, it's just too costly. Expect Microsoft to bring the price down by launching an Xbox One subscription service of some sort, and then subsidizing the hardware for those willing to buy long-term contracts. But people will still be paying a premium price for premium hardware, via the higher-than-needed monthly fees.

Because of that, I don't expect the Xbox One to be the game-changer Microsoft hopes it to be. It's just too costly. And I'm also not convinced that people are ready yet to cede their living room to a single company. Mix-and-match, as chaotic and confusing at that might be, will likely still be the order of the day for several years.

So I don't expect the Xbox One to take over the living room. But I also don't think it will be a Windows 8-level fiasco, either, because there will be plenty of people willing to pay the high prices for what seems to be a solid piece of hardware.

Microsoft hits undo on scrapping ‘start’ button

Microsoft Corp is bringing back the Windows “start” button, offering a stripped-down version among a slew of improvements aimed at winning over tablet users and placating PC customers alienated by Windows 8.

The world’s largest software company is looking to re-energize sales of its latest Windows version, which has not made the splash with computer users it was hoping for. Executives say the plan is now to update Windows periodically, rather than waiting three years or so between big releases.

Although Microsoft has sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses since October, broadly in line with Windows 7 three years ago, the company must tackle a dwindling PC user base and its inability to make a mark in the exploding tablet market.

Shipments of traditional PCs - the most reliable gauge of Windows’ popularity - are expected to fall almost 8 per cent this year, while Microsoft’s Surface has taken less than 2 per cent of the tablet market.

Windows 8 was designed to be used both on touch-screen tablets and traditional PCs. But while touch-screen users tend to like the new “tile”-based interface, many mouse and keyboard users complained that the new design was confusing.

Confirming speculation, Microsoft said the Windows 8.1 update will have a button in the bottom left corner of the screen that acts like the “start” button in previous versions of Windows. Although it will not be labelled “start”, it features the Windows logo and takes the user straight to a grid of applications.

“The work you are seeing us do here is continuing to advance the modern (interface), while really taking into account some of the things we’ve learned from people who still want to use the desktop, to make the transition easier,” Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president of the Windows unit, said in an advance briefing on the Windows 8.1 update last week.

Microsoft is only making features of the new software public today.

Windows 8.1, previously known by the code name “Blue”, will be available for free to all Windows 8 users some time later this year. Microsoft will make a test version available at its annual developer conference on June 26th.

Windows 8.1 also includes a vastly improved “search” function, which allows a user to search for documents, apps, or items on the Internet from a single search bar, like a souped-up version of Apple Inc’s Spotlight feature.

It also allows users to see all their applications immediately in a grid by swiping down or pressing a button on-screen, which should make it easy for unfamiliar users to get to the app they want quickly.

Users can also customise the start screen much more easily, changing sizes of app icon “tiles” or controlling which apps appear. For the first time, it will be possible to open two windows simultaneously in the new-look interface.

Windows 8.1 includes Microsoft’s latest browser, Internet Explorer 11, and lets the user restore the address bar and tabs to the screen view. That feature was missing in the initial version of Windows 8, which was designed to make the most of limited screen space on a tablet but tended to disorient traditional mouse and keyboard users.

Users will also no longer have to switch to the old desktop view to make changes in their default settings.

But they will still have to switch back to a traditional desktop set-up to use some programs such as Word or Excel, which have not been redesigned to function in the new Windows 8 style.