Is the XBOX Going to Replace Your Mac?

2.5 million years ago, probably on a Wednesday, the first example of convergence occurred. A member of the species Homo habilis was cracking open a rival’s skull with a beat up fist-sized stone. After relieving the competitor of the ability to breathe our primate friend had a moment of the purest inspiration. Standing over the deposed genetic competitor he suddenly realized that the chipped stone would not only be useful for bashing in the skulls of his rivals, the accidentally sharpened edge would also make a remarkably efficient digging implement. Lacking the societal machinery to patent the idea and reap royalties he decided to share his discoveries with others at no charge. Thus our proto human example became the earliest discoverer convergent appliances while simultaneously becoming the first proponent of open source projects. Alas he was never able to share his stoke of genius with the rest of the band owing to a chance encounter with a predatory feline while returning to the group. Still achievement was remarkable.

This trend is with us yet today, corporations are forever trying to convince us to buy one product instead of two. On the surface it seems like a great idea the consumer saves money and gains the functionality of multiple products. Unfortunately the implementation is usually somewhat lacking. It seems as though you either end up with a product that performs one task with remarkable aplomb and executes the other task in a questionable manner or a product that performs neither task at a satisfactory level. A great example of the first case is the can opener with the built in knife sharpener. No one will argue that the can opener will open cans admirably but attempting to sharpen a blade using the built in sharpener is akin to dragging the steel randomly across a block of concrete while hoping for a finely honed edge. The master of neither category is exemplified by Swiss Army Mini Golf Knife (apparently no longer produced). You can’t effectively repair divots with the under sized tool and the blade is far too small for murdering your playing partner when he smugly sinks yet another birdie.

That is not to say the idea of converging two or more products into one device always results in a less than satisfactory combination. Take the ubiquitous claw hammer as paragon of convergent success. It pounds nails (and thumbs) very well and pulls the errantly hammered nails out (a common occurrence at my house) with equivalent agility. That is the low-tech example, the high end of the spectrum is exemplified by the home PC. What started out as an advanced typewriter for most folks now encompasses a photo editing studio, financial tool, content provider and game console. The flexibility is truly remarkable.

This brings us to the recent unveilings of the PS3 by Sony and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. The specs and capabilities are a bit too lengthy to cover in depth (click on the links) so suffice it to say both machines are very powerful and very flexible. A jaded observer might opine that these erstwhile game consoles are, in reality, a thinly veiled attempt to get a Media PC into your living room. At this point it should be noted that, the jaded observer is probably right. Either machine could easily replace your current console, your DVD player and your CD player while adding the ability to play high definition movies. The convergence doesn’t stop with disc playing hardware, conceivably both machines will be able to replicate the most commonly used functions of computers. Photo management, peer-to -peer networking, music downloads, browsing, ripping and burning could all easily be accomplished with either machine. One would imagine both Sony and Microsoft hope this concept comes to fruition. Imagine the benefits of a nearly completely proprietary system when used to download movies, music and games. From the corporation’s viewpoint you get both DRM control and a source of recurring income (some might opine that these are lessons learned form iTunes).

A futurist loves this concept, a personal computer that looks more like an appliance rather than a computer but the real question is will the consumer use the device for more than playing games? It is easy to think this might be the long awaited home computer killer but that is a doubtful conclusion. Corporations have time and time again attempted to give the consumer a low cost device that would cover all of their perceived needs, WebTV springs to mind, but thus far all efforts have failed. The truth is that people want their own PC. Dad doesn’t want to fight with Junior over the PS 3 so he can balance the checkbook. Teenager number two will surely want to listen to music while teenager number is furiously gaming. And no one wants to watch someone else browse the web. In short the new consoles won’t be replacing your Mac, though you might find that they replace a little functionality.