MSFT Roundup: Xbox 360, Media Center, Vista

One of those days where something interesting or significant about Microsoft pops up at every turn. A quick rundown, in addition to the DT IPTV deal we covered earlier:

Xbox 360 delivered: Finally, the product pipeline is wide open — just in time to take advantage of the longer-than-expected gap between Xbox 360’s launch and that of Sony’s PS3. Of course, Xbox also had its own unexpected gap but that was between launch and widespread availability. Shipments will increase by two-to-three times starting this week thanks to the addition of a new manufacturer.

Vista delayed: One day after Bill Gates talked matter of factly about launching the new OS this year, the company admitted that only the corporate version will squeak through. The consumer launch has been delayed until January; not quite sure of the content implications yet.

Media Center discussed: During his keynote at Microsoft’s Mix06, Gates said the company has seen a Media Center explosion. “We sold 6 million units last year, and as we got towards December that volume went up very dramatically, and it was actually a very high percentage of all the retail PCs.” He also talked about the 360 as an MC extender. (That concept may be pushed harder now that the console supply is loosening up.) He told the developers and designers “you really do want to tune the user interface to that [MC] environment.” Never one to pass up a trend, he also invited the MySpace CTO to join him during the session to talk about how Mincrosoft fuels the social networking site.

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