Intel Inside... Consumer Electronics (Again)

from the let's-try-this-again... dept

Intel has a history of jumping into consumer electronics offerings, to try to jump start the convergence of consumer electronics and the computing world so that they could sell more chips both in PCs and in the consumer electronics equipment itself. So far, those efforts haven't gone too well, but now Intel believes that the timing is right and true convergence is happening between computing and consumer electronics in a way that will let Intel play a major role. The consumer electronics players, who have often viewed the computing companies with a bit of fear, realizing the potential threat, seem to be accepting what's happening and are working with Intel to try to create a world where they still matter. The main holdouts are still the content companies, though even that is beginning to change. Of course, it still seems like the reliance on the big content companies is over-rated. The internet became successful not because big companies signed on, but because it allowed people to "make their own content" by communicating with each other. In a world of consumer electronics, we're already seeing that if the products are made well, the content companies are getting dragged along and coming up with business models later (see: TiVo, iPod).