Viewpoint: Wake Up Vendors, The Web Is Here To Stay

Sure, those facts aren't anything new, but they seem to be foreign to many system builders, major PC vendors, ISVs and even Microsoft. While there's a flurry of Media Center PCs and other multimedia computers that excel at showing and recording TV and DVDs, playing music and photo management, they're not well-designed for online activities.

Take Microsoft Windows XP Media Center. The Media Center interface provides access to nearly every computer activity a person would want. It includes applications for TV and DVD watching and recording, radio listening, image manipulation, game playing and more. But to access the Internet, one needs to minimize the Media Center interface and go back to the main desktop. There's no task bar at the bottom of the Media Center screen that would allow a user to easily toggle between Media Center and Internet Explorer. It's also difficult to have separate Internet Explorer and Media Center windows open side by side. That's ironic, since one reason it's called Windows is because you can easily open and close and toggle between applications.

Third-party software packages designed to provide an alternative to Media Center also include applications designed for TV, DVD, music and game activities but do not provide tools to supplement the computer's basic Web browser.

With the Web becoming an increasingly central part of our lives and the single greatest source of media content, it is also quickly becoming a foundation of entertainment. So its exclusion from entertainment-focused PCs is startling.

I asked a Media Center spokesperson at Microsoft about the absence of Web access in the interface. The spokesperson explained that because Media Center is designed to be used via a "10-foot" experience--i.e. from a person sitting on a couch accessing a computer on the other side of the room, browsing the Web is difficult to do in this situation, because most users find it easier to access the Web from the "2-foot" mode while sitting at a desk. The spokesperson also noted that Media Center includes an Online Spotlight section, with numerous third-party applications through which users can download music, movies, news and other content from the Internet for a fee or free--though they can't browse the Web on their own.

Though Microsoft may be correct in thinking that few people want to actively surf the Web while sitting 10 feet from the screen, including basic Web access in the interface is still useful for many activities, such as looking up trivia on a movie you're watching, downloading music or checking e-mail while using one of Media Center's entertainment functions. Microsoft created applications in Media Center for other activities that can be accessed via a remote control and a wireless keyboard from 10 feet (until Media Center came out, I never would have dreamed you could touch up a photograph with only a remote control). And I'm sure they could create a Web browser that also could be used from 10 feet away.

In addition, several vendors sell Media Center PCs with tower designs and wired keyboards and mice that are intended to be used on a desk in a bedroom, dorm room and related settings and used from the 2-foot range. In such a situation, the lack of an integrated Web browser is severely limiting.

Microsoft has made significant improvements in each version of Media Center, and hopefully the next version will include a Web browser. System builders and ISVs developing their own hardware and software would be wise to do the same. Integrating Web access will benefit the entire industry and will especially provide digital integrators with a better business case for selling the computers.

While on the topic of Media Center, in this month's issue of Digital Connect Magazine we look at several other topics related to the interface. Our cover story analyzes complaints by many integrators that Microsoft does not provide enough marketing or assistance to help them sell Media Center PCs. On a more upbeat note, we have a review of an awesome Media Center Home Theater PC from Nor-Tech, a look at an effort by Nvidia to improve system builders' construction and sales of Media Center systems, and a poll on our Web site about whether Microsoft provides sufficient assistance for integrators selling Media Center PCs.

Any thoughts? Contact MICHAEL GROS, associate editor of Digital Connect, at (516) 562-7276 or [email protected].