Microsoft is cleaning up in the instant messaging space with MSN Messenger and email space with Hotmail. Microsoft has even made an impact in the infomedia area with MSNBC and (in Australia) NineMSN. It has also made serious inroads into the lucrative games market with XBOX, and is jockeying for position in the PDA and mobile phone space. And now, mighty Microsoft intends to throw its marketing muscle against its most formidable opponent yet - TV.

In a couple of weeks Microsoft will roll out its vision in the form of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition. Along with doting hardware partners, such as Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Acer, and others, Microsoft intends to show the world how it will turn a PC into an "all-in-one digital entertainment hub". Microsoft promises that PCs packing its new software will enable users to access instantly by remote control such goodies as TV, movies, photos, and music, all stored centrally.

Aside from the telephone, the most ubiquitous communications device in any household throughout the developed world is the TV. Microsoft, together with Intel and the myriad of PC vendors, have made massive strides toward gaining similar ubiquity for the Windows PC. The internet explosion has helped a lot in this regard. However, even in the creme de la creme PC using, internet trawling countries of the first world, including the US and Australia, there are still plenty of homes where a PC is nowhere to be found - especially in the homes of senior citizens - although this is changing rapidly.

The PC has almost become a requisite tool for school children and there are now many homes that have more than one PC floating around, often sharing broadband internet through a wireless network. It is in this environment that Microsoft intends to launch itself headlong into the field of mass entertainment. If Bill Gates has his way, the PC will replace the TV as the hub of family viewing.

What Microsoft is up against, however, is a host of new product offerings starting to make their way on to the market from vendors in the US, such as TiVo, and D1 here in Australia, which market set top products that turn ordinary TVs into online entertainment hubs. These competing products have predominantly been developed in an open source environment and, thus, are diametrically opposed to the Microsoft offering.

Nothwithstanding the fact that Bill Gates is a genius level marketing visionary, replacing the humble TV with the PC as the focus of family entertainment will take some doing. In fact, what Microsoft is attempting to do with Windows XP Media Centre is enforce a paradigm shift on TV viewers. What Microsoft is saying is in effect, "Why have a TV in your family room, when you can have a PC sitting there instead." That's some paradigm shift. Two weeks from now, the battle will begin for the home entertainment portal. Whether Microsoft succeeds or not, it is certainly not going to be a six day war.

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