At Five Nerds, on the issue of mobile devices, up until now it’s been 2 opinions: Android or Apple. The lone Apple fanboy, I own an iPhone 3G, and it has literally changed my life because even the most mundane things are improved by having my iPhone around. The interface has been top notch since day one (Inertia? Seriously? What could be more nerdy?) and Antennagate really didn’t affect my plans of buying a new iPhone 4 after the fiasco ended.
That being said, I got pretty excited when my Xbox 360 got its fall update this morning. I knew some of the larger features (ESPN, etc.) were coming ahead of Kinect (and that the price of Xbox Live was going up), but I was unaware it was coming with a dashboard revamp as well. After getting to interact with many of the new features as part of my real life, Microsoft’s ability to take on Apple/Google (and fight off Facebook) really hits home.
1) ESPN
Xbox got its first traditional “channel” today when ESPN was rolled out. Although the content is a bit light (it’s Monday morning and there’s little NFL coverage, but there are three postgame clips (interviews and analysis) posted today from last night’s World Series game. While version one is basically a YouTube channel with individual videos, the natural evolution of this concept is not good for the Cable Box-Cable Company partnership that has been depriving my wallet of a significant amount of extra cash each month. If I could get HBO, AMC, Bravo, ESPN, and my local stations (or national equivalents, honestly, the locals can come later), I would switch to watching my television over the internet. Makes you wonder why Cisco thought it was a good idea to buy Scientific Atlanta. I’m still not sold, though: Google TV will be a strong competitor here, especially with it embedded in internet-enabled televisions.
2) Netflix Search
I’ve been a Netflix subscriber for over 5 years now (June 2005), and I love it. Absolutely love it. Although it hasn’t ever really bothered me, up until this point you’ve only been able to watch your queue with categories and suggestions on the Xbox 360. Now, Netflix comes full circle, allowing you to search for content as well in an interface that matches the new dashboard. Very nice. Windows Phone 7 has Netflix support as well, putting it at least on par with my current ability to watch on my iPhone.
3) Zune Pass
Unlimited access to music I can stream or download to play on my PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7? I think the real reason I never grabbed onto the idea of subscription-based music was that I couldn’t access it on all of my devices with one subscription. This is, of course, in addition to the Xbox’s existing ability to play all of the DRM-free MP3s, AVIs (including DivX), etc., off your primary PC’s hard drive or external hard drive using Windows Media Player’s file sharing functionality on XP. Microsoft, if you can figure out a way to get my iTunes DRM-encased songs and videos over to Windows Phone 7, I would switch today. Which brings me to my next point.
4) Windows Phone 7
Unfortunately I missed the Gizmodo article that gave Windows Phone 7 its Seal of Approval, but man this OS looks impressive. It’s the version 1 of iOS (no copy/paste, etc.) but it looks fluid and built for multi-touch. If the retail devices work like the Gizmodo video, I might seriously have to debate my upcoming phone choice. I was half way to purchasing a MacBook Air, external RAID array, Apple TV and iPhone 4 to replace my IBM Thinkpad and iPhone 3G, but now I’m thinking that Windows 7 may be the way to go.
With Xbox Live friends on Windows Phone 7, Microsoft may actually have a decent competitor to Facebook. Xbox Live has 25 million members that log 1 billion hours of time each month, and Hotmail has some 350 million accounts — numbers that have to be in competition with Google and Facebook. Facebook’s power is its ability to share content, and Microsoft is deploying some of the finest paid content that is created to the Xbox 360. If you could share content around those items among your friends, Windows Live may actually come full circle around to be a legitimate social network. Multiplayer games have always been awkward on the iPhone, because you have to send phone numbers, names or email addresses to the app in order for it to match users, or use a 3rd party relationship API such as Facebook’s to retrieve friends (which doesn’t seem to be widely deployed in the mobile gaming universe). Microsoft may be the first to get to true multiplayer with persistent friends on mobile devices. If they bought Steam and integrated it into Xbox Live they’d have a gaming monopoly. I doubt Facebook can compete with the average MMORPG’s ability to generate money from enabling social relationships online…
