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| Focus Moves Beyond PC at CES 2007 |
| Jan. 22, 2007 |
Announcements from Microsoft at the Jan. 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) revealed how the company is continuing to diversify its home entertainment strategy. Although the Windows PC still plays an important role in this strategy, particularly with the forthcoming launch of Windows Vista, the company is increasing its focus on other devices—for example, by introducing a home server based on Windows Server and adding TV capabilities to the Xbox 360. Beyond the PC Unlike past years, the most significant new products and partnerships that Microsoft announced at the 2007 CES had little direct connection to the Windows PC. This is in line with the recent evolution of Microsoft's home entertainment strategy. In past years, Microsoft has promoted the Windows PC as the central device in the home for accessing, storing, and playing digital media, and it focused on building software platforms—such as the Windows Media platform and the Media Center interface—that would allow third parties to help realize this vision. Since 2005, however, this strategy has shifted in two important ways:
Specific products and partnerships announced at the 2007 CES include a home server for backup and digital media storage, TV set-top box features for the Xbox 360, and a deal with Ford to sell new cars with Microsoft software for controlling cell phones and portable media players. Windows Home Server Expected in the second half of 2007, Windows Home Server will be sold to OEMs for use on inexpensive, "headless" servers with no monitor or keyboard. Although based in part on Windows Server 2003, Home Server is a much simpler product with fewer features, and it is intended to give consumers an easy way to back up their existing computers and to store files—particularly digital audio and video—in a centrally accessible place. Home Server runs counter to Microsoft's former home entertainment strategy, which positioned a full-featured PC (ideally, one running Windows Media Center Edition) as the central location for storing digital media, and various thin-client devices (such as Media Center Extenders or portable media players) as consumers of this media. Home Server, in contrast, positions a specialized device as the central storage location, with full-featured PCs as clients. Benefits of Home Server include the following: Centralized storage. Home Server will allow users to store important files centrally and access them from PCs and other devices in the house. Storage can be provided by either internal or USB-connected drives, and all storage is treated as a single pool (no drive letters are used). If a user wants to remove a particular drive, Home Server will determine whether the drive holds any critical files (e.g., backed-up system files) and will move that data to other drives. Each user on the network is granted one of three levels of access (none, read-only, or read-write) to shared folders on the server. (Note that Home Server requires its own user accounts, and users must log onto it separately from all other PCs on the network; it cannot serve as a domain controller or centralized directory for accounts on other PCs.) Home Server comes with several predesignated shared folders (e.g., Music, Photos, Videos) and administrators can create new ones. Shared folders will be accessible from any computer on the network, including Macintoshes or Linux boxes. Automatic backup. By default, all networked PCs running Windows XP SP2 or Vista are backed up to the Home Server once per day; users can also perform a backup on demand. Users will be able to do a full image-based restore of those PCs, including entire drives, individual files, or earlier versions of files, with a few relatively simple steps. (In some cases, users might need to insert a recovery CD into the PC that is being restored.) In addition, users can maintain two copies of designated folders on two separate drives in the server; if one drive becomes corrupted, users still can recover their data. Digital media streaming. Users will be able to stream digital audio and video from Home Server to any device that supports the Windows Media Connect protocol, including Windows XP and Vista PCs, Xbox 360s, and digital home receivers from Microsoft partners such as Roku. Remote access. Customers with their own Internet domain will be able to access, configure, and upload data to their Home Server over the Internet using a simple URL and a Web browser. Home Server users will have the option to register their servers with Windows Live Domains, Microsoft's Internet domain hosting service, to make it remotely accessible. Users will also be able to remotely access files and applications on Windows home PCs through the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP, supported on Windows XP Professional and Vista Business and Ultimate). However, the company has not revealed many technical details on how this feature will work, and variations in home networks could cause problems—for example, routers and firewalls might have to be specially configured to allow inbound connections. Because Home Server is intended as a consumer product, Microsoft purposely limited its scope, and it will not perform many traditional server functions, such as the following:
In addition, the product will be limited to 10 user accounts. In spite of these limitations and possible licensing restrictions, Home Server could also find a place in small or home businesses with several PCs, its main advantage being the ability to automatically back up critical data, a necessary chore that is often neglected by small companies. Windows Home Server will first be available on a Hewlett-Packard (HP) device called the HP MediaSmart Server, and several other manufacturers (AMD, Inventec, and Quantra) showed prototypes at CES. (For a photo of the HP product, see the illustration "HP MediaSmart Server".) Although pricing has not been announced, these devices are expected to be less expensive than all but the cheapest PCs. The Home Server software will not be sold separately from hardware—only Microsoft OEMs and system builders will have access to it. IPTV on Xbox 360 By the end of 2007, the Xbox 360 console will be able to serve as a receiver and digital video recorder for TV systems based on the Microsoft IPTV platform, which Microsoft sells to telephone providers who want to add TV programming to meet the "triple threat" posed by cable providers selling Voice-over-IP phone service. (For more background on Microsoft's Internet Protocol TV [IPTV] solution, see "IPTV Commercial Rollouts Planned" on page 33 of the June 2005 Update.) By making the Xbox 360 an IPTV terminal, Microsoft may sell more consoles to audiences who are less interested in a stand-alone gaming device, and also make its IPTV platform more attractive to end users who want more entertainment features (e.g., gaming, DVD playback, downloadable video) than are normally available through a TV set-top box. This is the latest move in a gradual expansion of the US$400 console into a full-featured digital media device: in late 2006, Microsoft began selling an HD-DVD player add-on and offering high-definition video (including TV shows and movies) on the Xbox Live service. This gradual expansion threatens the business case for the PC as the home entertainment hub—in particular, the Media Center PC looks like a considerably more expensive alternative, albeit one with more flexibility (for instance, it can receive cable TV signals while the Xbox 360 cannot). Until recently, Microsoft appeared to be relying exclusively on partners, such as Cisco (which acquired TV set-top box manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta in 2005), Motorola, and Thomson, to provide the set-top boxes necessary for end users to receive IPTV signals. Now, Microsoft has revealed that the Xbox 360 will also be able to serve this purpose, albeit with some modifications (early reports suggest that a separate router will still be required). The company will sell the consoles through service providers, which will recoup the cost through higher upfront or monthly fees. Microsoft also said that the Xbox 360, when used as an IPTV set-top box, will provide digital video recording capabilities. However, the current 20GB hard drive on the console is too small for this purpose—digital video recorders typically contain 120GB to 250GB disks—suggesting that Microsoft will sell larger hard drives as add-ons. The company is also rumored to be considering a second iteration of the Xbox 360, code-named Zephyr, that will reportedly include a 120GB hard drive and other new features (such as an HDMI output to enable high-definition video in the highest resolution format, 1080p). The impact of the announcement is somewhat blunted by the fact that only a handful of service providers (AT&T, BT, Deutsche Telekom and its French subsidiary, and Swisscom) are currently rolling out IPTV solutions based on Microsoft's platform, with customer numbers in the low tens of thousands as of the end of 2006. However, many of these deployments began only in late 2006, so customer numbers are likely to rise significantly by the time the Xbox 360 IPTV boxes are available. Ford Does Windows In fall 2007, the Ford Motor Company will ship 12 cars with an optional system called Sync, which will allow users to control their Bluetooth-enabled cell phones or USB-connected portable media players with voice commands. None of the supported devices need have any connection with a Windows PC. The system is built on the Windows Mobile for Automotive (WMFA) platform, a subset of the long-available Windows Automotive platform, and is very similar to the Blue&Me system introduced on Fiat cars earlier in 2006. (For more background on WMFA, see "Automotive Adds New Platform" on page 26 of the May 2006 Update.) Specifically, when users enter the car with a Bluetooth handset, or plug any device containing MP3 or Windows Media Audio files (including an iPod, Zune player, third-party MP3 player, or even a flash drive) into the car's USB 2.0 port, they will be able to control the devices with simple voice commands, such as "call Bob" or "play the Beatles"; the phone or music player will route the audio through the car's stereo system. Sync will also alert drivers of new text messages, read out the text messages, and allow drivers to reply with one of 20 predefined responses. Pricing has not been announced, but the system is expected to cost several hundred dollars (Blue&Me costs about €300). It will be expandable through firmware updates, and the underlying WMFA software supports other technologies, such as GPS for positioning and navigation applications and GSM for wireless voice and data transfer. Vista News 2007 was the second year in a row that Windows Vista was on display at CES, and although many of the highlighted features had been previously announced, the company did reveal some new information about Windows Vista at the show, including the following:
Resources Links to CES press releases from Microsoft and its partners can be found at www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/default.mspx. |
