Think Forward

More from IDF

Intel and Panasonic announced a partnership on battery technology. Intel says they are shooting for 8 hours in '08 of computing time in a laptop. I can just envision a day some time from now where people look back and can't believe there was ever a time with laptop batteries got only 4 or 8 hours of life. I hope that some brilliant genius finds some breakthrough technology that revolutionizes the battery industry. Until that day I suppose 8 hours in '08 will have to do.

XBOX 360 and HD-DVD

Not sure if who all saw the news a couple weeks back but this news is interesting to me for several reasons. According to statements by Bill Gates the XBOX 360 will include an HD-DVD drive. Since the HD-DVD drives will not be ready by the initial 360 launch, Microsoft will beginning selling the 360 with HD-DVD sometime next year. I find this interesting for several reasons. To me this says Microsoft will make modifications to the 360 over the life of the product. Meaning the 360 that launches in Nov will not be the same 360 at the end of the product lifecycle. Microsoft is allowing itself the flexibility to update the 360 to stay inoovative and competitive. I also find it interesting that they even mentioned this. Why tell people a better version will be out next year, causing some people to wait on buying the hardware. Microsoft's whole Nov push was to beat Sony to market and gain market share early. By saying this I believe there will be a batch of gamers that wait to buy the 360 now or even at all. Lastly I am dissappointed that they choose HD-DVD because I feel Blue-Ray will win this one in the long run. So let's hope when that happens Microsoft puts a Blue-Ray drive in the 360.

Late nights with John Madden

So I have been playing a lot of Madden 06 lately. I am addicted to a few of the new features. One of the new features I love is Superstar mode. I get to create myself and take him from rookie to superstar. It is very tedious work to do so but also a lot of fun in the process. The only thing I don't like about this game mode the lack of control over the strategic moves of your football team like trades, the draft and other great features of franchise mode. I do however hate, no loath, the new QB vision feature. It is very difficult to pass with and takes much getting used to. This feature really sucks when you want to play action pass and leads to many sacks unless your O-line is amazing. Anyway Madden has locked up the NFL and is the only football option on the market and will be for years to come. My advice to EA, either evolve QB vision and make it more fun to use and mix superstar and franchise mode. None the less I am still up late playing Madden.

Our new digital home lab

Throughout my blog I will posting and commenting on research projects we are working in our new digital home lab. I have assembled many "best-of-breed" digital home technologies in a lab for digital home research. Many of these technologies include Media center PC's, networked digital set top boxes, digital media adapters, home theatre PC's, cell phones and universal remotes to name a few. Our current project is on the role current and future universal remotes will play in the digital home. We have the Phillips iPronto, the Nevo SL and the Logitech Harmony 880. Since in our lab we can do virtually all of what we believe consumers will be doing years from now, these remotes fit in nicely and will hopefully give us a sense to the role they play now and will play. Stay tuned for more research lab results and project updates.

Digital Electronics

People always ask me what areas of the tech market I cover as an analyst. I can't just say I cover consumer products or consumer electronics products because that is too general. So I have devised a new term, or at least new to me that I wanted to throw out there. Since I cover pretty much all digital media aimed at consumers and electronics devices that can play that digital media. I have decided that I cover the areas of digital electronics and digital media. Meaning roughly any CE device capable of playing digital media and all. I hope that is clear for all the PR folks out there.

Market Research

I have a theory that I am out to prove. That theory is that consumers don't want a PC in thier living, or at least they don't want to know it's a PC even though it will be. A good example of this is Tivo. Tivo is a PC but consumers don't know that. The same is true of my Comcast dual tuner DVR, it has a processor, a hard drive an OS and UI. It's a PC even though I don't think of it as one. So my first hypothesis is people don't want a "known" PC in thier living room next to thier TV. My second theory is people may not want to see the Intel or Microsoft brand on a device in thier living room next to their TV. I feel that people may not shop for CE devices like they shop for PC's making sure it has an Intel processor and Microsoft operating system. In fact I think to some consumers it may be a negative instead of a plus to have these brands on a living room product. So I have set out to do some research and try to put some real-world evidence to my thinking. So stay tuned for the research results.

Intel and "ViiV"

Intel announced today a new brand they are calling "ViiV", sounds like "live." What is interesting about this brand is that it is focuses around the digital home. This brand is created to let consumers know that not only is the device running a Intel processor but it will also work well with other "ViiV" and non-viiv digital appliances in the home. I liken this brand to the Microsof "Plays for sure" brand, which I still think is a ridiculous name. Anyway if these companies are succesful, meaning they don't confuse consumers like they usually do, then Intel may have a good thing going. One thing Don MacDonald the GM of the digital home group said that I think is key, is that "Intel is taking a consumer centric approach understanding that the consumers have set the bar, and that bar is much higher the we (the PC industry) are used to." I think for the PC industry to have any success in the digital home they have to set aside thier PC centric views and thinking and focus much much more on consumers. Intel seems to get this so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Digital Home Series

This is an introduction to a series I will call "Technology and its role in the digital home." I will be posting a series of thoughts on different technologies and thier roles in the digital home. I will start with the PC and its role in the digital home, piggybacking on recent IDF news. Then move all the way down the chain to the universal remote. Stay tuned.