SJ.com - Microsoft and Intel Push Into the Living Room

WSJ.com - Microsoft and Intel Push Into the Living Room: "Personal-computer kingpins Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. are angling for a more prominent position in the nation's living rooms, with designs of enthroning the PC as the new centerpiece of home entertainment.
The two giants will detail their latest assault at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. There they plan to discuss a series of products that they say will make it easier to use PCs to organize movies, music and television shows while shuttling that media around the home. The announcements should also serve as a stepping stone in the two companies' decade-long quest to embed Microsoft software and Intel microchips directly into televisions.
Traditional makers of everything from stereos to DVD players are fighting to defend their turf. What they fear most is the rise of a single PC, rather than gadgets designed by these companies, as the hub for controlling how consumers view photos, channel-surf or listen to music.
These companies believe their own devices will be easier and more enjoyable to use than the PC, which they view as a business tool that is prone to suffer from bugs, viruses and crashes. 'I don't mean to put down the PC, but it's sort of like fast food,' says Ken Kutaragi, Sony Corp.'s technology czar."

Meanwhile, Sony's CEO is noted by BusinessWeek as one of the worst managers of the year.