Squeak Xbox port

Cees de Groot cg at cdegroot.com
Thu Apr 10 08:57:17 UTC 2003


On Tue, 2003-04-08 at 18:39, Chris Reuter wrote:
> Personally, I find this whole goal sort of perplexing.  PVRs and game
> consoles are appliances.  Yes, they have computers in them, but (most)
> people buy them because they want to record TV shows or play video
> games.  If they want to compute, they get computers.
> 
There is a law in marketing that any product, after it has filled its
niche, will crawl upward in the market, filling higher-and-higher-level
niches. 

Game consoles are just that. But add an LCD TV, and suddenly screen
quality is not that much of an issue anymore. Add a web browser, a
wireless keyboard with built-in navigation tool (mousepad or whatever),
and suddenly you don't need to go upstairs to the PC that often anymore.
Add a nice service with a web browser plugin that does your word
processing, and suddenly you don't even need to go upstairs to write a
letter (the printer and the game console both have USB)...

Slowly, without anyone noticing, game consoles *will* creep up into the
market that is currently filled by PC's, at least as far as home use is
concerned. And, as far as home use is concerned, it is probably a good
thing: the only thing, after all, that really exercises Joe A. User's
home PC *is* games, and the other thingies - finance, word processing,
mail, web browsing - can easily be delivered on a game console with an
LCD TV and Internet access. That frees Joe A. User from having to play
sysadmin, which I think is a good thing. For 90% of the home users out
there, the PC is the wrong idea, and a 'computing appliance' is the
right idea. 

So, I find it *extremely* worrying that these things are closed
platforms. And *extremely* worrying that people who sell mod chips in
the USA are indeed being fined and jailed. Because I predict that in
5-10 years, PC's are things for hobbyists, and game consoles will
dominate home use (these, and other specialized appliances - I believe
very much in the 'bluetooth' model where lots of relatively specialized
appliances all connect together, rather than to the 'Nokia 9210' model
which is a one-thing-does-all-badly appliance).


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