14 DAY TRIAL // It's been well known that Microsoft Corp. and Intel have shared a profitable relationship for some time now. This time, their partnership is flourishing in different ways than previously seen. Recently, the two companies have decided to combine their efforts in the home theater department.
Their combined efforts will be geared toward creating the digital living room. Don MacDonald, Digital Home Group vice-president at Intel, said on Tuesday in a telephone interview with ZDNet that "this stuff doesn't just happen?You can't just have one company trying to do everything."
Big changes are coming. After a lot of time competing against each other (Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center edition software versus Intel's Entertainment PC), the companies realized the futility of trying to fight each other. This also comes at a time when rival chip maker AMD announced plans for its own PC entertainment system.
MacDonald said "Timing is everything"; this comes at a time when, according to Bill Gates' Consumer Electronics Show speech, "consumers are getting more and more connected, and software is at the centre of that?2005 was a very big year for the PC, but 2006 will probably be even bigger. It'll be a big year for the digital lifestyle."
People are curiously anticipating Microsoft's revival which has been notable these past few months. They will more than likely start off swinging in the first quarter of this year and results are soon to come.