In Premium Blend, Hylton quotes from this commentary by Scott Bradner on the "visions" laid out by Sony and Microsoft at CES:

"To me the visions - if they actually can be classified as 'intelligent foresight' - are virtually identical, are hardly innovative and, I hope, will turn out to be mirages created by extreme nearsightedness..."


What's more critical, he says: the "important battle - the one to let you and me control what we see and do rather than becoming programmable automatons with the controls being in the hands of Microsoft or Sony with the copyright mafia directing both of them."

Whichever "vision" of the future connected entertainment world takes off will probably depend on which one takes hold with the marketplace.

Microsoft has a monopoly advantage, but people don't particularly like them and it often seems to take them several tries to get new technologies right. Sony has a history of introducing new technology that resonates with consumers. Companies that are currently developing new technology that will let us "control what we see and do" with that technology need to pay close attention to making that technology not just user-friendly, but even dumb-user-friendly.

This is really, really important. Don't innovate just for geeks - the geeks are not a big enough market.  In order to avoid having our living rooms taken over by Microsoft and Sony, we need innovative technology that will sell to groups on the diffusion curve beyond Early Adopters.

For more on this, read Corante's new blog, Amateur Hour by Jonathan Peterson:

Companies that give us tools that allow us to play, collaborate and invent are much more likely go gain our long-term loyalty than those who try to convince that what they are giving us is all we need.