Why Microsoft Needs Xbox
It is late in the 1990s, and you are Bill Gates. You have successfully, though painfully, moved your lumbering giant of a company into the Internet era and trounced Netscape. Instead of being thrilled or relieved that this titanic threat has been overcome, you are a worried man.
You have learned from your friend Andy Grove that "only the paranoid survive." You are now indeed paranoid about game consoles. Game consoles, game consoles, the very words haunt you. Your "we nearly missed the Internet" experience has opened your eyes to other threats to your Windows empire. Some have been imagining how game consoles hooked to the Internet could doom your dream of Windows PCs in the family room. Game consoles could evolve into being the home Internet computer without a hint of Windows. Worse, Sony has emerged as the likely dominant player with Playstation. Sony has deep pockets and deep knowledge of the consumer entertainment and electronics business. A Sony computer in every family room connected to the Internet without Windows is a terrifying threat.
You have decided to make a bold strategic move. You will pin Sony down defending Playstation as a game console. This will divert Sony resources that could otherwise go into making Playstation more of a general purpose home PC threat. You will do this by attacking their strength with a Microsoft game console, which you refer to as the "X-box" (the hyphen will later be dropped by your marketing gurus).
Your engineers have convinced you that this machine must be designed from the ground up to be focused on games, with great graphics processing on TVs at its core. They have been clear that they mean both hardware and software. They have been bold enough to tell you flat out that this means no Windows under the hood. They have been persuasive and you have decided to bite the bullet and abandon, for now, your Windows Everywhere mantra.
You are committing Microsoft to this strategy for the long term. You are willing to lose money and accept second or third place in the market for years so long as you keep Playstation in it place as a mere game console. Windows must be defended at all costs.
Taking the long, strategic view, you also decide that Windows will become a great game platform, even if it takes many years to get there. Then you will start the process of converging the X-box and Windows platforms. Time, money, and constancy of focus and vision are on your side.
Fast forward to the present. Microsoft and Sony are duking it out for top spot in the game console space. Sony is tied up in knots keeping Playstation competitive with Xbox in games and their home PC threat seems well contained. Windows Vista will, at last, be a great game platform. Game Studio will enable game development for Xbox and Windows. Xbox Live Arcade will evolve into a multifaceted Xbox and Windows online game community and mall. Xbox and Windows will converge. The Gates Xbox strategy is relentlessly moving forward, slowly but surely, step-by-step.
Copyright © 2006 Philip Bookman
Technorati: Xbox Microsoft
You have learned from your friend Andy Grove that "only the paranoid survive." You are now indeed paranoid about game consoles. Game consoles, game consoles, the very words haunt you. Your "we nearly missed the Internet" experience has opened your eyes to other threats to your Windows empire. Some have been imagining how game consoles hooked to the Internet could doom your dream of Windows PCs in the family room. Game consoles could evolve into being the home Internet computer without a hint of Windows. Worse, Sony has emerged as the likely dominant player with Playstation. Sony has deep pockets and deep knowledge of the consumer entertainment and electronics business. A Sony computer in every family room connected to the Internet without Windows is a terrifying threat.
You have decided to make a bold strategic move. You will pin Sony down defending Playstation as a game console. This will divert Sony resources that could otherwise go into making Playstation more of a general purpose home PC threat. You will do this by attacking their strength with a Microsoft game console, which you refer to as the "X-box" (the hyphen will later be dropped by your marketing gurus).
Your engineers have convinced you that this machine must be designed from the ground up to be focused on games, with great graphics processing on TVs at its core. They have been clear that they mean both hardware and software. They have been bold enough to tell you flat out that this means no Windows under the hood. They have been persuasive and you have decided to bite the bullet and abandon, for now, your Windows Everywhere mantra.
You are committing Microsoft to this strategy for the long term. You are willing to lose money and accept second or third place in the market for years so long as you keep Playstation in it place as a mere game console. Windows must be defended at all costs.
Taking the long, strategic view, you also decide that Windows will become a great game platform, even if it takes many years to get there. Then you will start the process of converging the X-box and Windows platforms. Time, money, and constancy of focus and vision are on your side.
Fast forward to the present. Microsoft and Sony are duking it out for top spot in the game console space. Sony is tied up in knots keeping Playstation competitive with Xbox in games and their home PC threat seems well contained. Windows Vista will, at last, be a great game platform. Game Studio will enable game development for Xbox and Windows. Xbox Live Arcade will evolve into a multifaceted Xbox and Windows online game community and mall. Xbox and Windows will converge. The Gates Xbox strategy is relentlessly moving forward, slowly but surely, step-by-step.
Copyright © 2006 Philip Bookman
Technorati: Xbox Microsoft
Labels: software strategy
posted by Phil Bookman at 2:19 PM
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