Skip to main content

If Only Intel and Microsoft Had Apple's Mojo

WSJ columnist Lee Gomes tells the story of how simplicity, by design, may be Apple's forte -- but it remains elusive to the likes of Intel and Microsoft.
Just take a look at one of the central products of the emerging post-PC world -- a living-room "media center" that will function like your current set-top box, but will also let you TiVo your favorite shows and access videos on the Web, among other things. Intel is making a big push to get into this market, and has launched a huge campaign around the newly minted Viiv brand to show how its chips work in these devices. But one of the first Viiv-based machines, judging by a review forwarded by industry watcher Pip Coburn, isn't anything I'd want in my house. The unit is described as big, boxy and ugly, with a loud fan and a badly designed remote control that crashes easily and takes a long time to do things even when it does work.

Apple is rumored to be preparing its own living-room video product, and whatever its shortcomings, I have a hard time imagining it getting similarly excoriated. Apple has a built-in benefit, because many assume that whatever it does is cool, the way some pop stars can start fads just by changing clothes.

But mostly, Apple has Mr. Jobs, who functions, in the words of one vendor trying to sell to Apple, as a "one-man focus group," a person with a legendary design sense who insists on getting what he wants. That is possible on the Wintel side, despite occasional claims to the contrary. Both Microsoft and Intel have long had programs in which they certify products as complying with the technical specs of their chips or operating systems. It would take only a bit of imagination to extend that idea to an entire product and the experience of using it.

A "Microsoft-approved music player" or "Intel OK'd media hub" would need a consistent look, fit, finish and user-experience that the iPod does. There are, no doubt, lots of smart, visionary individuals at both companies capable of designing delightful versions of both products. If either company could manage to allow those visions to reach the marketplace without being battered down by committee-think -- in other words, to give one person or one idea Jobs-like powers -- the sky would be the limit.

Popular posts from this blog

AI-Driven Data Center Liquid Cooling Demand

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperscale cloud computing is fundamentally reshaping data center infrastructure, and liquid cooling is emerging as an indispensable solution. As traditional air-cooled systems reach their physical limits, the IT industry is under pressure to adopt more efficient thermal management strategies to meet growing demands, while complying with stringent environmental regulations. Liquid Cooling Market Development The latest ABI Research analysis reveals momentum in liquid cooling adoption. Installations are forecast to quadruple between 2023 and 2030. The market will reach $3.7 billion in value by the decade's end, with a CAGR of 22 percent. The urgency behind these numbers becomes clear when examining energy metrics: liquid cooling systems demonstrate 40 percent greater energy efficiency when compared to conventional air-cooling architectures, while simultaneously enabling ~300-500 percent increases in computational density per rac...