Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
I know being abrasive is probably your nature so I won't take offense but I simply don't think streaming is going to replace cable any time soon and I'm probably right. One day we will all be driving electric cars but gasoline engines aren't going anywhere anytime soon just like cable.
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I don't think it's being abrasive to point out that your premise is invalid because it has already been shown in a very similar case to not hold true. Back in the 70s, cable penetration was only in the large cities, and far more expensive than OTA. Yet by the early 80s, cable was king. Now you have a cheaper and better technology with far better potential penetration into the market, and you think it's not going to prevail over cable?
The only thing stopping people from switching now, en masse, is that cable is easy to use and that the PVR allows you to time-shift so that it's a kind of ersatz on-demand service, plus content providers have a huge vested interest in the status quo and are reluctant to do anything to annoy their main customers, the cable companies. But it's already viable to switch - I am lazy as all heck, but I've considered dumping cable entirely and just going thru the hassle of getting a US IP for Centre Ice to watch the Flames, and torrenting the 2 shows I actually watch (Game of Thrones, Walking Dead); the only thing really stopping me is that I WANT to pay for the content, but currently I can't and I don't like the idea of leeching something that has real value.
In the specific case of the Xbone, I think Microsoft is entirely correct in positioning their machine as they have because the non-tech savvy user will like having a simple, preconfigured portal that will allow her to access all kinds of content, and considering that the hardware requirements of such a portal are much less than that of a dedicated gaming machine, they are even setting themselves up for keeping their machine relevant for years and years past its usefulness as a strictly video gaming console.