The BBC web site has the first part of an interview with Bill Gates. He talks in vague terms about the future of home computing and the importance of the Media Centre in that. One answer is very telling. He’s asked “It is a tricky area though. Digital rights management. Are you sure that you are not worried that it could trip you up?” and he answers
Well certainly, you want the convenience and yet you want people who create things to have some ability to be able to charge for those things.
And we feel very good about the dialogue we have had for many years with the content industries. How we have struck the right balance there and that is why you see an explosion in digital music.
Do you see that? “The dialogue we have had … with the content industries”. That’s what he sees as most important, the requirements of the content providers. Not a mention of the requirements of the content consumers (i.e. us).
Nice to see where his priorities lie. Of course, any consumer that doesn’t agree that the content providers know best is probably a communist!
I think you might be being a bit harsh on Bill there (surely some mistake!). If he can’t get the content then his idea is dead in the water, so whilst I’d agree that in the long term the customer dialogue is more important, in the short term (which is the stage he’s at right now) he’s got to try and build a product in the first place.I’d also say that there probably won’t be a great deal of revealing dialogue to have with consumers anyway, since it’s pretty obvious what they want: cheap, convenient and flexible. The negotiations with the content providers are the real hard work in this deal, I’d say.