I'm becoming a believer in single-purpose devices. A media PC is trying to be all things at once: DVD player, media streamer, PVR, TV tuner, audio receiver, etc. and I have serious doubts whether it can accomplish any of those functions better than a dedicated device. Also the companies involved with the media PC, Intel and Microsoft, aren't exactly experts in any of those fields, as big as they are.
I've seen some pretty poor implementations from companies operating outside their area of expertise and media PCs certainly fall in that category IMHO. I would like to see more thin clients personally. Slim Devices had a good idea, quite radical at the time: use the cheap, powerful, scalable PC to provide the bulk of the computing power and use a thin client to accomplish things the computer cannot: silent operation, a good display without the need for a full monitor or a TV connection, plus audio circuitry a run-of-the-mill PC could never hope to achieve. I think other devices could take advantage of this concept as well and I would be more apt to trust a product made within a niche company's core competency rather than a product made by a non-specialist company aimed at the mass market. That said, it doesn't matter what I think...because Intel and Microsoft are gearing up to put a media PC in every home. There will be millions, possibly billions, spent on marketing - it's seen as the next major growth area for PCs now that office and home PCs have reached saturation. So I doubt whether little old me will make a difference in the face of such a juggernaut. :-) -- Mark Lanctot ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22474 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
