Windows Home Media Center competition now owned by Yahoo
I’m not sure how I missed this, but it seems that there is/was this small little company with big dreams (gotta love them for that) of competiing with Microsoft in the ‘Home Media Center’ arena. They’re called Meedio and they just got bought by Yahoo.
They had a grand total of 20,000 customers - as opposed to Microsoft’s 9M.
So it was probably pretty smart of them to sell out while they had any chance of hell of a liquidity event. I sure hope they get rewarded on the upside - if their system makes any money for Yahoo. Apparently Yahoo has something called Yahoo Go TV - but it’s not out yet.
Meanwhile a clear competitor to Microsoft now emerges. I had more or less written off this sector - as the stuff Sonic Solutions did for Dell - just sucked. And none of the ‘Interactive TV’ people seems to have a clue and has been waking up to smell the mustard. Or smelling salt as the case may be.
Yahoo platform in the liviing room is looking mfore real everyday. Hmmmm.
Maybe a great fit for an Alliance with a certain three lettered platform who have a shitload of content - too? I wonder if Yahoo thinks they can ‘go it alone’ - or rely upon Terry Semel’s Hollwood connects - or whether or not they’re looking to take on Microsoft - head on.
This should be fun.
Meanwhile congrats to the Meedio team and whoever pulled this deal off at Yahoo. Smart move.
The last company I owned and recently sold was called Abrocour which pre-installed broadband plus wireless IT fixture & fittings including a media center into every “new” home in the UK - and Meedio was certainly one company I looked at and admired. It seems I was not the only one to have looked and admired. Microsoft certainly copied their UI and features and to protect this new market actually made it cheaper for OEM’s to pre-install Windows Media Center Edition instead of Windows XP Home.
So Meedio had no chance to approach the OEM maket with their product. Maybe now with Yahoo’s financial clout and OEM partnerships we will see more of Meedio but as Marc suggest in the guise of Yahoo TV?
Fianlly one thing Meedio did really well - which Microsoft has failed to do - is create a third party add-in ecosystem around their core product. If Yahoo can get their developer strategy sorted out they may give Microsoft a run for their money before the next version of Media Center in Vista sees the light of day.
The last company I owned and recently sold was called Abrocour which pre-installed broadband plus wireless IT fixture & fittings including a media center into every “new” home in the UK - and Meedio was certainly one company I looked at and admired. It seems I was not the only one to have looked and admired. Microsoft certainly copied their UI and features and to protect this new market actually made it cheaper for OEM’s to pre-install Windows Media Center Edition instead of Windows XP Home.
So Meedio had no chance to approach the OEM maket with their product. Maybe now with Yahoo’s financial clout and OEM partnerships we will see more of Meedio but as Marc suggest in the guise of Yahoo TV?
Fianlly one thing Meedio did really well - which Microsoft has failed to do - is create a third party add-in ecosystem around their core product. If Yahoo can get their developer strategy sorted out they may give Microsoft a run for their money before the next version of Media Center in Vista sees the light of day.
The last company I owned and recently sold was called Abrocour which pre-installed broadband plus wireless IT fixture & fittings including a media center into every “new” home in the UK - and Meedio was certainly one company I looked at and admired. It seems I was not the only one to have looked and admired. Microsoft certainly copied their UI and features and to protect this new market actually made it cheaper for OEM’s to pre-install Windows Media Center Edition instead of Windows XP Home.
So Meedio had no chance to approach the OEM maket with their product. Maybe now with Yahoo’s financial clout and OEM partnerships we will see more of Meedio but as Marc suggest in the guise of Yahoo TV?
Fianlly one thing Meedio did really well - which Microsoft has failed to do - is create a third party add-in ecosystem around their core product. If Yahoo can get their developer strategy sorted out they may give Microsoft a run for their money before the next version of Media Center in Vista sees the light of day.