After many years of developing similar entertainment products but taking different paths into consumers’ digital entertainment living rooms, Intel and Microsoft have decided to collaborate in the entertainment market.
In fact, this partnership between these two tech giants has been underway for about two years. This collaboration also reflects Intel and Microsoft’s efforts to provide users with the software they need.
Microsoft has a dedicated operating system for the entertainment sector – Windows XP Media Center – while Intel offers a similar product in the form of entertainment PCs. In many cases, Intel’s entertainment PCs sold on the market run Microsoft’s operating system. However, these initial collaborative efforts did not yield favorable results as users continued to complain about complexity, video quality, and other issues.
Don MacDonald, Vice President of the Digital Home Group at Intel, stated that significant efforts have been made to make entertainment PCs easier to use. Extensive research has been conducted in this area.
Intel has recently launched a new home entertainment system, VIIV, designed for computers running Intel processors. Microsoft’s Media Center operating system and other components have also been tested, demonstrating that they can coexist harmoniously. The Viiv technology-enabled PCs are expected to hit the market by the end of the first quarter of 2006.
Meanwhile, Intel’s competitor AMD has also announced plans to develop its own line of entertainment PCs.
Perhaps the first area of entertainment that Intel and Microsoft want to explore is television. Previously, to watch television—both traditional and cable—on the Media Center, users needed an additional signal converter. However, Microsoft has recently announced that it has successfully developed technology that allows users to watch television—both standard and high-definition—on PCs without the need for a converter. Microsoft’s DirecTV can also enable users of satellite television services to transfer TV content to computers running Windows and other devices using Microsoft software. Intel has also secured similar content supply agreements.
In summary, we, the users, stand to benefit the most from this collaboration between these two tech giants in the information technology industry. Let’s wait for the results.
