Microsoft's new gig for PCs: Entertainer
BusinessWeek | at | by Mike
Microsoft has long lusted after your living room. Facing a largely saturated market for PCs, the company sees the convergence of computing and entertainment as an opportunity to reignite its growth. The software maker has achieved some success with the Xbox game console, but the big prize is music, movies, and television.
So far, Microsoft's frontal assault on the TV set hasn't fared well. Its WebTV and Ultimate TV products--which combined Internet access, television, and a crude form of interactive TV boxes--were both busts. Technical difficulties and resistance by cable operators to doing business with Microsoft has kept the software giant out of the set-top box business.