Why Portable Media Center?
For the most part, I’ll leave it to Microsoft and its hardware partners to market Portable Media Centers. But I do find the story of how the PMC came about to be somewhat interesting. There are two aspects to this story: The wider strategy Microsoft has for delivering digital media beyond your PC, and the way in which the company has delivered on that vision, specifically, in this case with the PMC. Microsoft’s strategy–a so-called end-to-end media wave that’s code-named Maui–is what sets the company apart from erstwhile competitors such as Apple. In Microsoft’s world-view, it’s not enough to enjoy your digital media on just PCs and a limited number of portable audio devices. Microsoft sees people creating, consuming, managing, and sharing digital audio, video, and photos in varies ways, and in various places, throughout their lives. Naturally, the center of the strategy is a Windows XP-based PC running Windows Media Player 10 (WMP 10, see my review); for even better experience, you
