"I'm now painfully aware of just how different the PC and consumer electronics industries are, and why those differences promise to make a home-networking standard so hard to set. Despite the demands of consumers like you and me, it could take years.
The differences may best be expressed simply by comparing the PC and the TV. The PC is a complicated, multipurpose, upgradeable piece of electronic equipment that lasts maybe four years at most. The TV is a simple, single-purpose, non-upgradeable device that lasts for about 10 years.
PC vendors are accustomed to moving quickly in a rapidly changing environment. Consumer electronics makers live in a world where product decisions may haunt them for a decade or more. You can see how these different circumstances would inform their different approaches to industry standards.
There are other differences that will determine how these two industries play with each other, too. Microsoft and Intel hold enough sway to move PC players toward accommodation. The consumer electronics industry has no force like that--not even Sony wields that kind of power.
It won't help either that CE makers are wary of Microsoft. They don't want to be bound by the ongoing software-licensing fees, nor the undue influence, that Microsoft imposes on, say, Dell, Gateway, or HP.
AS A RESULT, bringing these two industries to consensus on a home-networking standard will be like negotiating an arms control treaty between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. at the height of the Cold War."
