[Am-info] charter and M$

[Geoffrey]

I think this will be M$'s greatest failing.  Attempting to move their 
lousy software and delayed timeframes to new customers who are going to 
put up with it:


*** CHARTER DELAYS PLANS TO DEPLOY MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY

  - [The Wall Street Journal, B5.]  Charter said it won't deploy 
Microsoft-powered TV services early this year, as it had hoped -- and 
may not use Microsoft software at all this fall when it rolls out a 
flagship TV set-top box that is styled as a home-media center.  Charter 
had announced a relationship with Microsoft in November, stating that it 
expected to use the software company's technology in as many as a 
million homes over the next several years.  But it didn't designate a 
software supplier when it announced plans for the high-profile set-top 
device last month.  The box is being developed with Digeo, a television 
company founded by Paul G. Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who is also 
Charter's chairman.  Any change in plans is significant, because 
analysts had viewed Charter's commitment to Microsoft's software as a 
big vote of confidence in Microsoft's TV program.  Microsoft has missed 
delivery deadlines with other cable operators, some of which have begun 
testing software from Microsoft rivals.  The delay by Charter comes as 
Microsoft is reducing its stakes in some European cable concerns. 
Microsoft declined to comment on those moves.  In the U.S., the economic 
downturn in the cable industry has hurt most TV-software vendors. AT&T, 
which received a $5 billion investment from Microsoft in 1999, has 
backed away from plans for its cable unit to deploy Microsoft's software 
in a Motorola set-top box called the DCT5000.  AT&T is now focusing on 
deploying simpler Motorola boxes and is testing other "residential 
gateway" products that stress things such as video on demand, music and 
home networking.  "We don't have [current] plans to deploy interactive 
TV," David M. Fellows, the chief technology officer of AT&T's cable 
unit, said.  "We're testing it.  There are still issues with everything 
that we've tried."

-- 
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric@3times25.net

I didn't have to buy my radio from a specific company to listen
to FM, why doesn't that apply to the Internet (anymore...)?