Long Tail goes mass market with Xbox 360
Chris Anderson, Mr “Long Tail”, has got hold of a pre-release Xbox 360 and put it through its paces. He’s reviewed it over on his Long Tail blog and here are some of the salient points.
Chris concentrates on the box as a “digital home enabler”, leaving games reviews to others after release tomorrow. (Release tomorrow is perhaps over-egging the pudding as even large Wal-Mart stores are only getting 10 units each).
He begins his review by declaring an interest : “Given my interest in the Media Center PC as a Long Tail video platform, I was particularly interested in how well it worked as a Media Center ‘extender’ … .” The answer is “very well indeed”.
The Xbox 360 … has the extender software built-in, and the remote control included with the “fully-loaded” package has a dedicated green Media Center button that both turns on the Xbox 360 and takes it directly to the Media Center interface. The remote can also turn the machine off, which is handy. … I suspect that the release of the Xbox 360 is going to be one of two breakthrough events that take the Media Center concept mainstream. … The second breakthrough event will be the release of Microsoft’s next version of Windows, Vista, which will come with the Media Center technology as a default in the home version (although they better fix the interface before they release it).
The reviewer is generous to the manufacturer : “I never thought I’d say this, but by the standards in this industry Microsoft is actually looking relatively innovative …. If the Xbox 360 and the new content marketplaces of its associated Xbox Live service continue to take off, we really could have the beginnings of a Long Tail platform that could challenge broadcast TV.
