Microsoft to Launch an Xbox Media Center PC?
By Brooks Talley |
November 12th, 2004
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Following the lead of other commodity manufacturers, Microsoft is looking to soak up as much shelf space as possible by offering as many as three versions of the Xbox 2, which will now be called Xbox Next. The three versions will include a base model without a hard drive and a model with a hard drive, followed a year later by a hybrid Xbox / PC with media center functionality.
Appropriately, the hardware trio looks like a strategy to accomplish three goals. First, the model without a hard drive will allow a lower price point, and therefore make Xbox available to more people.
Second, having two models at launch and three models a year later is classic commodity marketing. Anyone who’s bought shaving cream recently knows that there are about 9 different versions of Gillette’s Edge Gel. There’s not much functional difference, but it presents buyers with the choice of 9 versions of one product against one to three versions of competing products. It’s a small but significant psychological advantage, and the same should hold for consumers faced with a choice between PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox Next, Xbox Next HD, and Xbox Next PC.
And finally, launching the Media Center / PC version a year later will put a more full-featured product up against Sony’s PlayStation 3, which should mitigate the damage from Sony’s huge launch. The Media Center version would also mark an entry into the low-end home PC market for Microsoft, and allow them to compete with Linux on the low end by offering very cheap (subsidized) hardware, and then profiting from the applications once those users are locked into the hardware platform.
This is all rumor at this point, but it seems to be well grounded, and it does make a lot of sense. Plus it’s got the feel of a classic Microsoft marketing strategy: perhaps a little too complicated, yet probably effective, with just a touch of laughter, evil genius style.
Source: The Inquirer
Filed in: Entertainment PCs