3Screens

Cringley Talks About the Importance of Safari For Windows for Apple / AT&T. I Think Safari For Windows Could be More Important to AT&T Than iPhone. Here's Why.

Robert X Cringley has a very good post theorizing the rationale for Apple developing a Windows-based version of Safari.

Hightlights of the post are:

"Here is the complex package of goods Apple is trying to sell to AT&T: There's the iPhone, of course, but there is also the Apple TV as a potential set-top box. Three hundred dollars for a set-top box? You have to be crazy! Not so crazy. Compared to not spending the kind of money Verizon is spending on fiber, Apple TVs are cheap even if AT&T gives them away. Remember that $400 rebate you used to be able to get on a new PC by signing up for two years of MSN? That didn't appear to make sense, either, yet it ran for years.

For Apple TV to be successful as an IPTV set-top box, Apple has to convince us that we really want to download our video, NOT stream it. Not incidentally, this is also the key to iTunes' long-term success. Downloading makes much more efficient use of network resources, works fine on a copper wiring plant, and fits our emerging TiVoesque world view. Steve will tell us that we are busy dynamic people who really ought to plan our viewing. And enough of us will believe him to make AT&T's copper video service a credible success"

Cingley points out that this move isn't about taking down Microsoft, it isn't about making Macintosh computers the dominant computing platform, it IS about performing a massive cashectomy on AT&T  After all, AT&T works closely with Microsoft's IPTV group and uses Microsoft technology for their middleware.

But Wait - There's More to the Story

I think Cringley is right- but did not tell the other half of the story. 

AT&T working with Apple can now leverage Apple's initial run at the disruption of how music is sold - via iTunes and now repeat history with the video content providers and producers in Hollywood.

To me, Safari for Windows could be even more strategic  than having the exclusive on iPhone for five years.

Microsoft's Rebranded Mediaroom To Extend Capabilities of IPTV. Alan Poses 10 Questions To Microsoft In Regards to This Announcement (And One Bonus Question)

Having been a U-verse customer for over one year, I have to plead "guilty" that I don't write enough about Microsoft and its role as being the middleware and a key element in the technology that makes U-verse.....uh....U-verse.

Microsoft TV unveiled today the latest update of its IPTV software platform and introduced a new brand for the platform to better reflect the broader set of capabilities it now delivers. 

Known as Microsoft® Mediaroom™, the company claims that it will enable the best, most personalized TV and entertainment experience, so that we as consumers can easily find and watch what we want, when and where we want it.

Some of the new features include:

• Personal media sharing. This enables consumers to easily listen to digital music and view digital photographs stored on PCs elsewhere in the home on the best screen in the house: the television.
• Multimedia Application Environment. The environment offers richer support for Web services and applications, enabling service providers to deploy advanced features such as dynamic video-on-demand   portals, casual games and interactive TV services.
• Enhanced MultiView capabilities. These allow consumers to see multiple channels, programs and camera angles on one screen.

The launch of Microsoft Mediaroom also marks the general availability of DTT capabilities on the platform, allowing service providers in regions with DTT programming to offer fully integrated, seamless IPTV services.

Microsoft TV has 18 major service provider customers (including AT&T) on four continents that are delivering TV experience to their subscribers.

Here's 10 Things Alan Wants To Know...

1.  Is AT&T going to follow the upgrade path to Mediaroom and if so, when?

2.  How and where does Xbox (and more specifically Xbox 360) tie into Mediaroom? 

3.   Will Xbox turn into an optional set-top box in its own right? 

4.  Will AT&T sell Xbox in its retail stores?

5.  The personal media sharing idea is  very cool.  How does it tie into AT&T's whole home DVR strategy?

6.  Does Apple have a competing software platform in the works?

7.  Mutliple views sounds cool.  But aren't we, as consumers, dependent on the content providers to provide multi-view content?  If so, I'd love to see some samples of how I could have mutiple views of say, the recent NBA Championships.

8.  Any chance Microsoft and AT&T could work together to extend the capabilities of BlueRoom with Mediaroom?

9.  Along the lines of AT&T's three-screen strategy, will Microsoft work further with AT&T to extend Mediaroom technologies into mobile phones (other than iPhone)?

10.  Seems like Mediaroom would really shine on Vista with some of the new tablet-based PCs coming out soon.  Again, in the vein of the three-screen strategy from AT&T, why not look at tablet applications for mobile TV - i.e. MobiTV, which AT&T already offers.

Big Bonus Question: Any possible ties with Mediaroom and Surface?  This seems like an entirely new way to present IP based video content, gaming, e-commerce, photosharing and much more on this very unique media platform. 

It would also help service providers like AT&T further distinguish itself further and offer the TV manufacturers like Sony, Toshiba, JVC, Panasonic develop new types of surface-based TVs.

Speaking the Obvious: Bill Gates Proclaims The Internet Will Revolutionize TV

According to Bill Gates, whose company, Microsoft is the core supplier to AT&T's U-verse platform, said something at the recent Davos Economic Summit event that speaks to the very obvious:  the Internet will revolutionize television.

Click here to learn more....

Click here to learn more about Microsoft IPTV

Microsoft Joins the Internet Video Sharing Sapce

So now, Microsoft gets into the Internet video sharing.  Though somewhat of a late entrant, they do have the MSN platform, and brand name, to enter the space.

You can apply to be a Beta Tester of their new Soapbox .

Alan's Excellent Adventure Continues

After an overview presentation by Jim Brady and Hemang Mehta, Group Product Manager, I met with David Sloo, User Experience Director, and Afshan Ali, Research Manager, User Experience, who work with a team of experts that monitor and study the end user experience.  They have a facility in the building where they observe consumers, much like any type of market research company would do in evaluating and testing new products and services.

Then it was off to visit with Peter Barrett, the Chief Technology Officer. (see photo here) What a treat.  Peter is driving the strategic direction and has to make sure that Microsoft’s technology can be deployed on networks from companies like AT&T.

Sitting in a mock living room, Peter demonstrated new features and programming concepts to come in the near future.  One good example was a working prototype of a Major League Baseball game with the ability to watch several games at once and get player stats, participate in a fantasy league and even watch a particular game from different angles. 

From there it was lunch with Christine Heckart, General Manager, Marketing.  “Think Big.  Start Small.  Act Fast.” This was Christine’s mantra during lunch and what seems to be the message she is sending to her group in executing the Microsoft IPTV vision.

Christine is making sure that her team reaches out to network operators, content owners, application developers hardware vendors and other partners to deliver a successful end user experience.  Aside from AT&T, she is working with 14 other telcos around the world, like  Deutsche Telekom who are conducting rollouts of the Microsoft IPTV platform.

Any time I have friends over to see IPTV, I don’t give them an introduction and I don’t advise on how to use the system.  I just hand them the remote and tell them to figure it out.  To Microsoft’s credit, they have under, rather than over-engineered the user-interface that is much like a Windows-like pull down menu metaphor.

I can only describe the interface as being very simple and intuitive.  To Microsoft’s credit, they have taken the front end for the end user, and the back end for the service provider like AT&T that works, is fast and easy to use.

Coming later today at 1:00 PM  EST:  2Wire’s Paul Brunato’s living room.

Continuing Alan's Excellent Adventure....Think Big. Start Small. Act Fast. A Whirlwind Tour at Microsoft’s IPTV group - and then over to 2Wire

When I think I Microsoft, I think of that humongous company that brought me Windows, Office, tons of games, and Microsoft-branded hardware.   And even though I now use a Mac, they still manage to get my business, because I own the Mac version of Office and our business runs on Microsoft business software.

Think Microsoft. Think Redmond?

In this case, Think Microsoft.  Think Mountain View – in Silicon Valley and not the Pacific Northwest.   I visited the Silicon Valley campus of the Microsoft TV group which was eerily identical and feel and scope as the interior of ad agency, GSM&D in Austin. 

Think big warehouse on a campus-like setting.  Think creative think tank.  Think open spaces with cool artwork celebrating the history- and future of -- television. 

Behind all the coolness, I had to remind myself that this was the same Microsoft that also makes enterprise-grade software that helps the world’s largest businesses and government institutions operate, calculate, publish, distribute, and secure information.  It was also the same Microsoft that has transitioned to telephony, web services and other enterprise class software and online services.

With its strength in the enterprise, it made sense that Microsoft would transition to the next frontier:  IPTV.  As a supplier to AT&T and Verizon (actually, Verizon uses a hybrid version and is not full ITPV) and other service providers around the world like British Telecom and Deutche Telekom they have developed Microsoft TV IPTV Edition. Think of it as an operating system, much like Windows, but for the whole network, as well as the set-top box. This allows telephone companies around the world to offer broadcast TV services, much like cable.

Microsoft IPTV Edition is the software platform that delivers broadcast-quality video and new, integrated TV services over broadband networks like the one I am using at home.

Having been an early trial user of the U-verse offering from AT&T, I have come to really like features such as instant channel change (ICC) and multiple picture-in-picture (PIP) with traditional TV services that I currently have on my AT&T system and on Time Warner’s cable offering like broadcast programming, VOD, and DVR.

The software is developed to integrate seamlessly and economically with other IP-based communications and media services for PCs, phones, and other in the future, consumer devices like your cell phone. Microsoft’s TV IPTV Edition is aimed at telecommunications carriers and for cable operators looking to deliver differentiated TV services and experiences.

2Wire was a different story.  I did not make it to 2Wire’s offices.  I made it over to Paul Brunato’s house where he have me a demo of the AT&T HomeZone offering. 2Wire makes the Residential Gateway that enables you to get what’s called “triple play” -- the integration of networked data, voice, and media services.  I just had a new model RG 3800 installed in my home and it’s bulletproof and has superior broadcast capabilities.  See my review from a previous post here.

Alan’s Excellent Adventure to See Microsoft and 2Wire

With everything I write about  AT&T, I thought it would be a good idea to expand my horizons a bit.

About three months ago, I started corresponding with Jim Brady from Microsoft’s TV group and Paul Brunato who is his counterpart at 2Wire.  They both run the PR side of their business and help support and interface with members of the media, industry analysts, and bloggers like me.

Over the next 3 days, I will be writing about a recent trip to visit both companies.  I am going to try to focused on I saw and learned and not get into all the techno-gobble.

Some of the information I learned was under NDA (non-disclosure) so there are certain things I can’t write about – at this time. 

In the spirit of a blog, my meetings were nothing more than informational and thought provoking conversations.  I hope I can return the favor of the meetings by conversing about my meetings in the three days to come.

For disclosure purposes, I went on this trip on my own nickel and I am not a paid consultant to either company.  Microsoft did pick up lunch in the company cafeteria and 2Wire’s Paul Brunato served a Diet Coke at his house and gave me driving instructions back to the airport.

Check back tomorrow for my first post at 7:30 AM EST.

Coming Next Week To 3Screens... Alan's Excellent Adventure to Visit Microsoft TV and 2Wire

Starting next Tuesday (Monday is Labor Day in the U.S.) I will have daily posts for the next four days re-capping my recent visit to see the Microsoft TV group and 2Wire in Silicon Valley.

It's been a great summer here in the blogosphere.  More posts to come.