Battle on the home front

BusinessWeek has an interesting article that relates to the Cisco item immediately below -- on the efforts of a number of PC and related companies (Intel, HP, Dell) to move into the consumer electronics market, and the responses by CE companies (Sony, Samsung).

PC makers' message is simple. Their devices, with built-in Web connections, powerful computing capabilities, and software that discourages illegal copying, are better suited than traditional consumer-electronics gear from the likes of Sony, Samsung, Sharp, and Matsushita's Panasonic. It's computers, not TVs, that will best serve consumers' growing digital desires, delivering everything from music to first-run movies, and shuffling that content to any corner of the home, they maintain.

But the CE companies say they have the edge:

It's really the PC-industry stalwarts who should be worried, argues Atsutoshi Nishida, CEO of Toshiba. In his view, PC giants, excluding Apple and Toshiba, have focused on the commoditization of technology, not on adding new innovations that let companies turn a profit.

"Commodity markets grow for a few years, but then they stall," Nishida says. "To make a market healthy, you need some percentage of new, uncommoditized technologies. Otherwise, the market becomes like a bloody red ocean."

The battle will be worth it: "U.S. Internet-connected households spend an average $214 a month on such items as phone service, movies, cable and satellite, and digital downloads."