Today desktops, tomorrow the world. That sums up Microsoft's global OS strategy. Microsoft is preparing for a future where computing devices of all types are ubiquitous, networked, and part of our daily routine.
For a while, it looked as if PDAs (personal digital assistants) were the next big thing. But judging from Apple's struggles with the Newton, it will be a while before PDA technology catches up to expectations. That's a fortunate reprieve for Microsoft, which is having trouble scaling Windows to fit on today's palmtops.
The next battlefront could be TV set-top boxes for interactive broadband networks. Someone has to provide the software for the head-end video server
s, the network switching equipment, and the millions of TV set-top boxes. Why not Microsoft?
Microsoft's data superhighway project runs under two code names: Tiger and Iceberg. Tiger, now dubbed MMS (Microsoft Media Server), is the video server that can spool independent streams of TV and video programming to thousands of home and business subscribers. Iceberg is the distributed OS that will run Tiger. Both technologies are undergoing small-scale trials.
The official name for Iceberg is MITV (Microsoft Interactive Television). Essentially, it's a distributed OS for the world's widest WAN. The foundations of MITV are familiar: Windows NT, Win32, OLE, and COM (Component Object Model). But like a real iceberg, the bulk of this mass is submerged. A simple user interface keeps people from realizing they're channel-surfing with Windows. New security features in MITV protect the integrity of back-channel communications, so users can pay bills, manipulate bank accounts, and order merchandise right off t
he screen.
Published APIs will let third-party developers write applications for the set-top boxes, just as they do now for PCs. They'll use familiar tools: enhanced versions of Microsoft's Visual Basic and Visual C++. Most of the OS and all the applications software will be automatically downloaded over the network into the set-top box when users switch on their TVs. Only a small amount of boot code will reside in the box's ROM; this reduces costs and makes field upgrades transparent.
A related piece of this strategy is the Microsoft Network, the new on-line service that's integrated with Windows 95. It, too, will be a pathway for remote banking, home shopping, and content delivery. The two main differences are that the Microsoft Network is targeted at PCs instead of TVs, and it's designed to work over the relatively low-bandwidth network of the telephone system.
Because mouse potatoes are more open to new technology, the Microsoft Network will be a good test market for new services that
may later be offered to couch potatoes. It guarantees that no matter which pathway into the home emerges as the most important--PCs or TVs--Microsoft will have all bases covered.
Tigers and Icebergs: Microsoft On-Line
