Over on CE Pro they have an article on why Windows Media Center needs an Alliance and an Installer Channel. I talked with Intel’s Greg Schlechter a director of the announced Media Center Integrators Alliance last week on show (#172), I think the alliance is a great idea if it focuses attention on Media Center as long as the focus does not switch to much to the custom installer channel away from the enthusiasts. Innovations from the custom channel can get passed down to the standard build that we enthusiasts get but there are many innovations coming from the community that need recognising. As Ed Bott said in his post Microsoft have a difficult balancing act with balancing the needs of OEMs and enthusiast.
Anyway back to the post, CE Pro have details the aims of the Media Center Integrators Alliance and how it can benefit the members and the CE installers.
Windows Media Center definitely has mass-market potential, but it’s going to take some time before the general population embraces the platform for home entertainment.
That’s the conclusion of PC-centric Microsoft, Intel, AMD and HP, who recently joined CE channel players Crestron, Lifeware and Niveus to form the Media Center Integrator Alliance (MCIA).
Why Media Center Needs an Alliance and an Installer Channel
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I agree that the Alliance is needed and I also agree with your statement that it’s good as long as it doesn’t mitigate the enthusiast community. I use MCE because I like working with the hardware and software…if it went to OEM only, it wouldn’t be enjoyable anymore.
Great – another announcement of an alliance for MCE. There have been many before and as long as there are idle marketing types, there will be others after this. In the meantime, the MCE concept keeps getting the rug pulled from under it by all parties. A random grab:
– Hewlett-Packard abandoning its Digital Entertainment Center
– Intel dropping the Intel Viiv Media Server
– Microsoft abandoning v1 extenders support
– Fiji’s new WTV file format released without any support (yet)
A product roadmap that didn’t look like SanFran’s Lombard St. would be a nice start…