[cptskippy]

I think what the author poorly articulated was that with UWP, Microsoft has the opportunity to create new hardware tiers developers can target. If, instead of creating a tier above the Xbox, Microsoft created one below it then I see tremendous opportunity.

Imagine if Microsoft had devices at the Amazon Dash, Android TV, and Xbox One tiers that all supported UWP and Cortana. That would be a boon for developers.

Microsoft could also introduce a beefed up Xbox One with more powerful CPU/GPU if it did so without creating a new tier. It could do something along the lines of the High-def packs that we see in PC games where everything functionally remains the same but the newer model receives higher resolution texture, models with more triangles, and can render out in 1080p:60fps or 4k.