Microsoft wants to win your living room with Xbox One
Nov 18, 2013, 11:26 AM | Updated: Nov 19, 2013, 1:22 pm
GeekWire's Todd Bishop said the Xbox One might be able to help Microsoft's other struggling products if users learn to like how the Xbox One operates. "If people get used to that interface, to the tiles [...] then they might be more comfortable getting a Windows 8 tablet or even a Windows phone," he said. (AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
The Playstation 4 launched last week. This week, it’s Microsoft’s turn. It’s launching the Xbox One at midnight on Thursday, and the company has a lot riding on this console.
The Xbox franchise has been one of Microsoft’s only real successes in the hardware world. It has missed and missed badly with music players, tablets and phones.
Todd Bishop at GeekWire said Microsoft needs to get this console right so it can flourish in America’s living room.
“There is so much competition right now for living room,” he said. “Microsoft has been struggling in tablets and phones, and this is the one area in the living room where Microsoft has made some headway in consumer entertainment.”
Bishop said the Xbox One might be able to help Microsoft’s other struggling products if users learn to like how the Xbox One operates.
“If people get used to that interface, to the tiles, to the services that are built in – Bing, Internet Explorer are both built in to the Xbox One – then they might be more comfortable getting a Windows 8 tablet or even a Windows phone,” he said.
The Xbox One is designed to be the one piece of electronics you’ll ever need in your living room. It can control your communications, your television and your gaming.
“One of the things that will actually cause people who are non-gamers to look seriously at the Xbox One is that the Kinect camera that comes with the Xbox One integrates seamlessly with Skype,” he said. “People will be able to sit in their living room, have a conversation with somebody else who’s on Skype on the other side of the world, using a computer.”
The one thing the XBox One can’t do is record your TV shows. That still has to be done with your cable or satellite box, but the cable and satellite will go through the console.
Interacting with the console might take some getting used to, said Bishop.
“Probably the best and most efficient way of controlling the Xbox One is by voice,” he said. “There’s a hurdle there for some people, in terms of speaking in the living room to their TVs. It’s not something that everybody is comfortable with.”
So you can tell the Xbox which channel you want to watch or what to search on the web, and it will switch it for you. You will also be able to record your game play to the hard drive.
The console costs $499, and you can’t use your 360 games.
