The Competition for our Living Rooms

Posted 11/27/2007

Link to August 28 San Jose Mercury News article, "Apple faces high hurdles and fierce competition in its push into the living room".

Excerpt:     Apple, which upended consumer behavior with the iPhone and iPad tablet, may have met its match in the living room, where it faces enormous challenges and fierce competition on what many say is consumer tech's new frontier -- the television.

The vision is to allow people to effortlessly access limitless entertainment and information on one device -- everything from HBO shows to Internet videos to games to e-mail. Users could dip into databases with tens of thousands of movies or old TV episodes -- and simultaneously scan websites or check Twitter accounts -- all with one simple set of controls.

The Cupertino company is not alone in its pursuit of dominance in the living room. Giants like Intel, Google and Microsoft -- as well as a host of smaller companies, including TiVo and Roku -- all see fortunes waiting just beyond the couch.