Firstly, don't take this thread the wrong way. I'm providing different hypotheticals as to what the outcome would have been like. I like my Xbox, but I would like to know....
Could Microsoft have done better with the investment they put towards the Xbox for something else?
That is, should Microsoft have not considered making the Xbox at all, and focused on another department?
Let me explain this. Think back to 2000. Windows XP was soon to be released. Microsoft had the entire PC gaming industry sewn up with the use of programming APIs like DirectX, which allowed effective communication between software and hardware without too much interference from the OS. You could say that Windows should have stuck to its rails and not changed. So why did Microsoft choose the way they did? Perhaps they saw Sony as a threat to their business model? Perhaps they were ready to enter the home theatre market and expand. I've thought about this a lot, and I'm starting to wonder if Microsoft's plan was a net positive for them or not.
For starters, Microsoft encouraged a few PC developers to start development on the Xbox. Effectively, they took developers from a market which they dominated and put it in a market that it wasn't dominating. Places such as Bungie now develop for other systems other than Microsoft. Perhaps Bungie would still be developing on the PC otherwise?
Secondly, how about PC gamers? A lot got newly introduced to console gaming with the original Xbox, once again moving some consumers from a market that Microsoft dominated to one they were behind in, marketwise. Surely a few of these gamers grew attached to console gaming and have since "dabbled in the black arts" of Microsoft's competitors?
Fast forward to today, we have iOS and Android giving Windows a run for its money with smart devices. Microsoft are late to the party to introduce Windows 8 for the devices (I'm reserved in Microsoft's decision to make Windows more "smart device" friendly. Once again, changing a market they're dominating in), and on the other hand, you have cloud based services such as Steam snatching up the digital distribution market. So was Microsoft's Xbox decision the right one, or should they have focused on other markets that would have been a threat to Windows?
Those were my two "alternative" thoughts; Microsoft could have developed a cloud based market like Steam, beating them to the game. Not only that, but it could have been distributed as part of Windows! I think that could have been an easy market for Microsoft to win.
The other option was to try and beat Apple to the punch with the smart devices. they had Windows CE and Windows Mobile, but they required a lot more effort than was put into them. I cannot help but think that Microsoft looked at the Palmpilot market and figured it was going to go nowhere. A smartphone with promise of full Windows communication before Apple hit the market might have taken a LARGE chunk of Apple's marketshare, especially with the more business oriented types.
So what is everyone's thoughts on the matter?
