With only one-near glitch, Microsoft put on a good “pre-show” keynote session at CES tonight, with Chairman Bill Gates touching on all the company’s high-profile, forward-looking initiatives. Following a futuristic demo of the possiblities of technology convergence using Microsoft’s upcoming Vista platform, which will ship by the end of the year, Gates primarily allowed his key executives to tell the Microsoft story through demos and hands-on displays, most of which highlighted whiz-bang features of Vista or Microsoft’s Windows Media technologies.
The chief of the world’s leading software provider returned again and again to the theme that software is what will drive convergence. “Software will come in and make things more simpler and effective,” Gates said. And it’s no surprise that Microsoft believes that a single company, as opposed to multiple providers, can make devices interoperate better and communications flow more easily across multiple platforms. We need to “drive them [consumers] through a single interface,” he said.
Windows Vista is clearly a video-centric system and is optimized for HD-viewing. Among its features are improved design, a new side-bar (which features a little media player that can run in in the side-bar or move to the main screen in a greatly expanded format) and something called “side show” which enables a calendar feature to run even when the PC is not powered on. Other features: desktop search, parental controls, portability around the home via other Microsoft devices (including the XBox 360), enhanced gaming and the ability to integrate photos with video in PC-based picture “albums.”
Other noteworthy take-aways:
—Microsoft expects that it will ship five million mobile device platforms this year.
—Microsoft is working with wireless VoIP phone manufacturers such as Uniden and Philips to develop an in-home phone that works over Windows Messenger so that users can call their buddies using VoIP, much as they might use a regular phone.
—A year ago, Microsoft had shipped only 1.5 million Windows Media PCs, a figure that has climbed to six million today. While the latter figure is pretty unimpressive, Gates said that Microsoft is working with 130 manufacturers in 30 countries “to drive that figure up.”
—Microsoft and DBS company DirecTV have a multiyear agreement that will enable Windows-based PCs, and other devices, including the XBox 360, to receive DirecTV’s digital content, including HD-content. Microsoft is also partnering with BSkyB in the UK (both DirecTV and BSkyB are controlled by News Corp.) to offer a videoon-demand content option to BSkyB’s customers with Windows Media PCs.
—Windows Live Messenger will have a “smart agent” TV service that allows a customer to engage in queries with an IM bot, that can then deliver up TV recommendations and even video previews
—Microsoft will be launching an external DVD drive for the XBox 360, and thinks that the XBox is one of the main catalysts, if not the main catalyst, for driving HD set sales.
There were a lot more announcements or noteworthy points made during the 1.5 hour dog-and-pony show. A webcast of the event is available here.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:16 PM | Print | Comments (0)I’m pretty sure that, if I worked at Google, I’d spend my “20% time” working on a Cringely-esque business plan involving large volumes of low-cost Google Cubes and data centers, and maybe even Google-funded local access networks…Or maybe its just that, with rumors flying about Larry Page’s CES keynote address later this week, its hard not to get carried away with such “Google Grand Plan” scenarios.
As Cynthia has noted, Google’s denial that it plans to build a PC or a “Google Cube” device doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t partner with one or more companies that actually build the hardware…a point also made by News.com and LightReading. (Also see Cynthia’s latest post about a possible video-related announcement from Google at CES).
Though a project on the scale suggested by Cringely is fraught with execution risks, its implications are significant enough to justify serious consideration, which I’m sure is taking place somewhere within the Googleplex—even if Page’s speech includes nary a mention of such plans. These implications also suggest that the rest of us—especially Google’s current and potential competitors— should also be thinking seriously about the possibilities.
A good place to start is to review two of Cringely’s November columns. In the first, which I discuss here, Cringely explains how Google has been experimenting with portable data centers built in standard 40-foot shipping containers. “The idea,” he says, “is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid.”
In his follow-up column, which clarifies that the deployment cost for these distributed data centers might be in the $1.5-$3 billion range, Cringely introduces the notion of the Google Cube.
This embedded device…is a small box covered with many types of ports - USB, RJ-45, RJ-11, analog and digital video, S-video, analog and optical sound, etc. Additional I/O that can’t be seen is WiFi and Bluetooth. This little box is Google’s interface to every computer, TV, and stereo system in your home, as well as linking to home automation and climate control. The cubes are networked together wirelessly in a mesh network, so only one need be attached to your broadband modem or router. Like VoIP adapters (it does that too, through the RJ-11 connector) the little cubes will come in the mail and when plugged in will just plain work.
On top of entertainment and communication the cubes will support home alarm and automation systems - two businesses that are huge and also not generally on the radar screens of any Google competitors. Throw a panic button atop every cube…Google becomes overnight a major phone company, a major video entertainment provider, a major player in home automation and even medical telemetry.
Since Google’s stated mission is to organize and make accessible the world’s information, it seems logical to me that they’d want to have devices connected to every appliance, computer and TV in users’ homes (and, as Cringely notes, eventually also in our cars).
In addition to bringing searchable order to the web and our PCs, as Google Desktop does today, an in-home Google Cube network could add to that the ability to organize our household’s entertainment content, and our communications, security, energy and healthcare needs and activities.
We might pay for some of this but, then again, maybe much of it could be funded by hyper-targeted advertising tied to an expanded array of “intention” and “usage” data and perhaps also information voluntarily supplied by users that come to appreciate the value of more accurately targeted “commercial messages” and/or who receive a discount or some other benefits for providing such information.
Google could pursue this path without investing in network capacity beyond its local data centers, as long as it felt it was getting sufficient access on existing broadband access networks. But if it felt that it wasn’t getting sufficient access to end-users, Google could pursue deals with cities along the lines of its Wi-Fi proposal for San Francisco, or even more ambitious deals that involved investments in near-infinite-capacity fiber optic networks that could out-perform cable and telco networks…or work with cities to deploy and integrate the most cost-effective mix of wireless and fiber networks.
And let’s not forget that a large swath of broadcast spectrum in high-value spectrum bands should be coming up for auction around the end of this decade. If Google’s ad-driven revenue growth continues at anything near its current pace, and the company begins rolling out the data centers and Google Cubes envisioned by Cringely, it could be very well positioned to be a winning bidder in the broadcast spectrum auction. And by that time, radio technologies will have evolved well beyond the networks being deployed today, which could be especially advantageous for a greenfield builder without the need to integrate its new 700 MHz platform with legacy networks.
…and we’d all live happily ever after, in our private corner of the infinite and interconnected Googleplex, using our “20% time” to think about ways to make the world a better place.
Uhhhh…..wait a minute…I must have dozed off…what a strange dream….something about free magical cubes that know everything about me and take care of my every need…I’d better get back to work, or I won’t have time to make it out to CES.
Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 10:03 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Om Malik has a strong suspicion that the real splash Google will make at CES has to do with video.
A reliable source of mine pinged and told me that the big news would be new and improved Google video. It is some sort of a video distribution deal which has been in the works for a while. Maybe content on demand, or finally a strategy and partnership that gives direction to Google Video. Whatever it is, Googlers are pretty pumped about these recent developments.
If this MediaPost item is any indication, Om is right on the money (as he usually is). Writer Shankar Gupta noticed a glitch on some Google Videos that indicated that Google is testing out a pay-per-view system — one that apparently allows users to look at previews of videos, but then charges for their full-length play.
GOOGLE APPEARS TO BE GEARING up to start charging people who stream video content from the site. While the search giant hasn’t yet made any formal announcements, a glitch in several videos streamed on Tuesday suggests that the company is ready to move to a pay-per-view model.
At least two of the site’s videos—“How Old People Have Fun” and “Jackass-BMX Roof Crash”—displayed a text overlay Tuesday afternoon asking users to purchase the video to view its full length. That message seemed to be an error, because both videos were available for free in their entirety on Tuesday; by the end of the day, the text overlays had been removed.
One thing is for certain: there might as well be no other companies at CES aside from Google, if the rampant speculation and expectation of the blogosphere and press are any indication. And I hope Larry Page has a retinue around him when he gives his keynote on Friday; otherwise he’ll be surrounded and never get out of the convention center.
p.s. I wonder if it’s possible that Google will announce both a thin-client PC by Wyse as well as a whole new Google Video venture? Nah, that could very well cause irreversible brain spasms among the journalists, analysts and bloggers in attendance. The good folks at Google wouldn’t do that to the world.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:51 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Blue-chip publishers are starting to catch on to the blogging phenomenon — not the “gives us your comments” type of blogging, but real writing by journalists who know the subject matter. The latest example: the Wall Street Journal has launched a law blog staffed by a former Goldman Sachs litigator Peter Lattman.
The blog not only sifts through the legal-related press and “culls the best writing from around the web” but it also has some interesting original features, such as items devoted to law firm management and hand-picked news and headlines from Nexis-Lexis. It’s hard to tell if a such a traditional publication can produce an interesting blog, but kudos to the Journal for trying. (Hat tip to Editor and Publisher.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:48 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Verizon is slowly and steadily racking up cable franchises throughout its service territory — the latest franchise is in Howard County, MD, a well-to-do exurb of Washington, DC. The Howard County Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to let Verizon offer video services over its fiber-based FiOs platform.
This marks at least the 12th video franchise awarded to Verizon for its multichannel FiOs TV service, with one of those franchises covering the entire state of Texas (see table below).
| Verizon FiOS TV Initiatives | |||
| Month | State | Communities | Type of FiOs TV Initiative |
| May-05 | FL | Temple Terrace | Video franchise awarded |
| Jul-05 | VA | Herndon | Video franchise awarded |
| Aug-05 | FL | Manatee County | Video franchise awarded |
| Sep-05 | CA | Murrieta City | Video franchise awarded |
| Sep-05 | NY | Massapequa Park Village | Video franchise awarded |
| Sep-05 | NY | Keller | FiOs TV service launched |
| Sep-05 | VA | Fairfax City and Fairfax County | Video franchise awarded |
| Oct-05 | CA | Apple Valley | Video franchise awarded |
| Oct-05 | MA | Woburn | Video franchise awarded |
| Oct-05 | TX | State-Wide | Video franchise awarded |
| Dec-05 | TX | northern Carrollton, Coppell, central Flower Mound, northern Fort Worth nearest Keller, north central Irving and central Lewisville | FiOs TV service launched |
| Jan-06 | MD | Howard County | Franchise awarded |
| Source: Emerging Media Dynamics compilation of company information. © 2006. | |||
While Google has pooh-poohed rumors that it plans to announce a Google PC (or Google Cube, as it were) at CES, rumors which started with a New Year’s day article by Sally Hofmeister at the LA Times, Mitch flagged something last month about Google working with Wyse Technology to develop a thin-client PC.
Mitch winnowed out of a long article about Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie (unfortunately this article is now behind a pay firewall) in the New York Times this relevant passage that could shed light on the Google PC rumors:
Google was among the companies that attended a meeting last month at I.B.M.’s headquarters in Armonk, N.Y., of the Open Document Foundation, a group formed to agree on freely available formats for word processing, spreadsheets and other office documents; the idea is to come up with alternatives to Microsoft’s proprietary Office formats. And for the last few months, Google has talked with Wyse Technology, a maker of so-called thin-client computers (without hard drives).
The discussions are focused on a $200 Google-branded machine that would likely be marketed in cooperation with telecommunications companies in markets like China and India, where home PC’s are less common, said John Kish, chief executive of Wyse. “Google is on a path to developing a stack of software in competition with the Microsoft desktop, and one that is much more network-centric, more an Internet service,” Mr. Kish said. “And this fits right into that.”
Update: Then again, the Google PC may not be real. David Krane, Google’s Director of Corporate Communications says “Nah, I don’t think so” to the idea in his blog.
Update: John Paczkowski, who writes the email newsletter Good Morning Silicon Valley, produced for SiliconValley.com, puts Google’s PC mystery in the following terms:
There will be no Google PC; there may, however, be a Google squarish case containing some computing circuitry.
But seriously Paczkowski points out that all of Google’s denials center on a Google-built PC, not necessarily a Google-branded PC, which is what the Wyse thin-client computer would be.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:44 AM | Print | Comments (0)Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post has a piece today that articulates what we’ve all privately been discussing for the past week: CES, a show that used to be devoted to gadgets, is about…everything.
With cable operators and phone companies and Hollywood studios and just about everybody in the communications world represented at the show, CES is about not only the gadgets, but also about the content and the distribution of new services and technologies.
Now, the show — much like the industry it represents — is adapting to a world in which technology is about more than just the device. What’s equally important is the data — whether it’s streaming music or digital photos — and the means through which we get that data, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and digital broadcasts.
This has been true in a way for CES over the past couple of years, but there is something about this year’s show that is different. Maybe it’s because the vaunted era of convergence is finally here and everybody is converging at the one show that serves as common ground for the diverse companies — the show that represents the end-user device.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:43 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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