I agree with you, though there is someone who is going to take a flyer on this technology as well, especially if the deals are loaded with “financial incentives.”

That said, given the ongoing operational scalability issues with the Microsoft IPTV platform — and the apparent impact on the telcos — I wonder if any telecom service provider CEO is willing to take another leap-of-faith with Microsoft.

Fool me once…

Maybe in the 80’s early 90’s the options were not so diverse and therefore their approach worked so well, most likely that and an early forced bet on PC’s (failure of Xenix to catch up on micro systems). So it was easier to identify or even catch up to change in directions.
Now it looks like Microsoft is confused, Web, Mobile, PC, overlap between the three, ad supported business , license supported business and free SW. All leading in different directions. Throw in the DRM mess and it looks pretty confusing if you don’t have a direction you want to go, or depend on others to show you the direction. In other words if there is a clear winner in the next 5-10 years Microsoft will take advantage of it. If not, they will wither away.