Gisteren heb ik al iets gepost over andere toepassingen van xbxo360 soft-/hardware. Vandaag is al zijn er al wat concretere berichten:
QUOTE
The operating system which drives the Xbox 360 may be licensed out for use by third parties, according to company chairman Bill Gates, suggesting that it may become part of the firm’s range of software for embedded systems.
Speaking in Japan, Gates said that the firm was considering offering the software – which offers extensive media and network functionality, and may allow users to download movies and music over the internet -to other companies.
His comments were confirmed by a Microsoft Japan spokesperson, who told the Associated Press that the arrangements being considered by Microsoft would be similar to the way the company sells the Windows operating system to PC manufacturers.
Microsoft has invested significant cash and resources in developing the operating system and user interface for the Xbox 360, which are designed not only to play games but also to provide for communications between Xbox Live users, content downloads, music, movie and photo management and playback, and interfacing with portable devices, Windows Media Centre PCs and possibly even online music and movie stores.
That same functionality, or a sub-set of it, would be very attractive in a large range of consumer devices – and this is an area where Microsoft’s existing Windows XP embedded product is currently facing strong competition from systems based on the free Linux operating system, while rival Apple is also thought to be planning an entry to this market.
Dus eigenlijk zijn ze van plan het operating system van de 360 op de markt te pleuren en te verkopen aan wie intresse heeft. De meeste bedrijven zoals Apple met hun Ipod hebben al eigen goed uitgewerkte operating systems voor hun apparaten, en andere firmas ook. Misschien voor nieuwkomers zou het wel aantrekkelijk kunnnen zijn, zij kopen de licentie van Microsoft over en passen deze naar eigen behoefte aan en sparen zo geld uit omdat ze zelf niet een volledig nieuw operating system hoeven te ontwikkelen. Of microsoft hier succes mee zal hebben, is voorlopig koffiedik kijken.
