At CES in early 2005, I hosted a Super Session panel entitled "The Battle for Control of the Digital Living Room" in which executives from Best Buy, Charter Communications (Paul Allen's cable company), HP, Philips, and Zoran discussed how digital technology would eventually affect the living room. The idea that the PC would be the hub of the digital lifestyle was championed as well as challenged by various executives. They warned that the PC would not necessarily be the only hub, that the set-top box or even home servers could someday be the central hub for the flow of digital content in the home. And at a dinner during the event, Kunitake Ando, then CEO of Sony, emphasized his vision of the TV at the center of the digital living room—with no PC in sight.
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My own research on the subject dates back to January 2001, when Steve Jobs took the stage at MacWorld and shared his vision of the Mac becoming the hub of digital lifestyles. Not long after that, Microsoft introduced its Windows Media Center PC, which—you guessed it—was to take center stage in our digital lifestyle. What was the difference between Bill Gates's and Jobs's visions? Gates envisioned PC content being extended to the TV, while Jobs talked about extending content from the Mac to the iPod.

Since that time, the battle for control of the digital living room has heated up, with various companies and industries entering the fray. While PC makers still believe the PC should be the center of the digital home, cable and telecom companies champion smarter set-top boxes and services. Companies such as Akimbo, Digeo, and Digital Deck also offer various twists on this theme, delivering a digital centerpiece for controlling, managing, sharing, and viewing all types of digital content.

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