Forget the Digital Media Hub Microsoft Says
by Curtis Lee Fulton (G2 News)
October 21, 2002
Microsoft has "backed away from the digital hub" strategy, according to Keith Laepple, director, technical evangelism for the company's Windows eHome Division.
During a speech at the Parks Associates Forum 2002 this week, Laepple said Microsoft's eHome group now envisions a future architecture for digital media that has "no center" and consists of audio and video devices, thin client displays and PCs that mesh together over a home network to form a digital media platform. Laepple said digital media PCs are best used to aggregate, create and store content, while TVs and thin clients should be used to manage it and play it back.
Ditching the digital hub strategy goes against the marketing tack Microsoft has been using for its upcoming Windows XP Media Center Edition, which will be available by the holiday shopping season on special PCs made by HP, Samsung and NEC. XP Media Center promotional materials paint the PC as a converged TV-computer. Ads show consumers using a remote-equipped machine to watch television and movies, then using it later to edit photos and write e-mail.
Laepple said a cheap, reliable media distribution system is a critical element in the digital media future. Consumers must be able to distribute media securely over home networks, the Internet and portable storage like memory cards and portable hard drives.
PCs will mostly be used to create and store digital media, he said. Devices such as stereos, set-top boxes and thin-client displays will interact with the PC to form a - yeah, you guessed it -"seamless" digital media system. Users will be able to play digital media files stored on their PC with their stereo and TV, or transfer them to a portable player for the commute to work.
Laepple said the interface for managing media, called a "network display," will be distributed as well. Microsoft's web tablet software, code named "Mira," offers consumers a sort of virtual desktop that can be accessed from multiple points. Instead of having a bunch of PCs sitting around, Laepple said the digital media home will have Mira-based thin clients that can be used to schedule a TV show for recording or sort and delete media files stored on a PC.
Laepple said that in Microsoft's digital media future the XP Media Center PC would operate more as a "trusted server" instead of a digital media hub. Besides storing, managing and distributing digital media, the XP Media Center will be able to monitor the house and provide remote access and telephony services like voicemail and so-called "desktop anywhere" functionality via Mira.
Consumers aren't interested in watching digital media on their computers, Laepple acknowledged. Once they get it on their PC, consumers plead, "Now help me get this content to...other devices," he said.