Reading through my very own selection of blogs (via Google Reader), I gain a lot of information across a wide number of different subjects. Some relevant information, I place in my own customised ‘The Deeper News Headlines‘ feed that you can find just at the top right. Well today, I found something that I had to comment on a deeper level about. This is a comment on the scale of competition.
The post on Don Reisinger’s Digital Home blog, discusses games machines and the competition between them. Particularly the way that Microsoft and Sony are ignoring the Nintendo Wii. They are seen to be ignoring it because they do not believe it is competition for their own products. The CEO of Sony has seemingly even stated this as fact. Don makes some real good points that should really hit home. So why am I writing this rather than just posting it to my own Headlines feed?
Well, it is because Don has not taken it far enough. Essentially, his post is restricted to the gaming universe but in actual fact competition is a very much more holistic experience. I can say that because I have found a much bigger competitor than the Wii for them… it is actually every single form of entertainment that we spend our waking hours at, from spending time with the family to playing the latest game. Sony and Microsoft are competing for time and money with everything, and they could just be losing when they do not consider EVERYTHING to be a competitor.
Television is in the same position, and it is having to adapt and change to meet the challenge to compete with everything that we entertain ourselves with. It is competing through DVRs/PVRs, VoD, Enhanced TV, and Catchup/online video services. It is interesting that most of these have been about making that rigid and inflexible TV schedule flexible enough to deliver what we want and when we want it. Now if only the media companies could jump in with both feet rather than the single foot that is DRM based content? What we want, when we want it, on whatever device we need it to be on.
There are only so many hours in the day after all.
