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Intel's Rumored TV Plans Would Compete With Apple, Google
Nerval's Lobster writes "Google tried to extend its influence to televisions, an effort that largely crashed and burned. Apple executives call Apple TV a 'hobby,' although it's been long-rumored that their company has a television set in the works. And Microsoft's made a muscular attempt to conquer the living room with the Xbox, which now does a lot more than just video games. If current rumors prove correct, you can soon add Intel to that list of IT giants with an eye on televisions. According to TechCrunch and SlashGear, the chip manufacturer is prepping to unveil a first-generation television system of some sort at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. TechCrunch suggests that Intel will debut the system on a city-by-city basis, similar to what Google's doing with Google Fiber, in order to maintain 'more flexibility in negotiating licensing with reluctant content providers.' (The publication's information comes from the ever-popular unnamed sources.) In essence, Intel is proposing a set-top box paired with a subscription service, which would provide a mixture of traditional programming alongside streaming content."
Apple is also FAR ahead of them in profits and market cap. Basically, Microsoft's era is over. Apple's era is here.
Apple managed to deliver what people WANT, rather than what they were forced to live with for eons: computers that "just work", rather than "computers that are virus infested crashing unintuitive hard to use pieces of crap".
Little surprise to see Apple eating Microsoft's lunch then.