[points]

Agree. The fact the xBox gaming console has the power of a supercomputer, as evident from its fans and overheating problems, but doesn't even have a simple webbrowser is all the evidence we need.

MS has never understood or indeed wanted the www to happen.

They were able to hold back www development for 5 years+ with their IE6 shenanigans, but the cats out of the bag now.

[Tyrannosaurs]

Really?

The XBox uses the web in the best way possible for a games console - on-line gaming. Maybe it's just me but I find a console a rubbish browsing platform - I've got browsers on my PS3, PSP and Wii and never use them. It is possible that Microsoft just don't have a browser in the 360 because it's not a great place to put a browser.

Microsoft own Hotmail, they've ported Office on-line, XBox supports on-line gaming, they make what is still the most popular single browser (which is under very active development), they produce web servers and a massive range of developer tools for the web from Visual Studio to Silverlight, they're working their arse off to get back into the mobile web market.

If they're not into the web they're doing their best to hide it with their actions and investments. They were, by their own admission, slow to get to it but I don't think that's a valid criticism now.

Now they're just all over the place but that's different to being anti.

[Xuzz]

The Internet is not the web. Native games with Internet multiplayer aren't the web, they are the Internet.

I don't know a single person using the online Office versions, because, well, they don't compare to the desktop ones.

Yesterday, I saw a graph showing Hotmail losing about 10% market share, mostly to Gmail.

Their new Xbox website broke every existing link on the domain.

Mocrosoft does not get the web, even if they might get the internet.

[Timmy_C]

The sites built for marketing Microsoft products are often outsourced. So the fact that the new Xbox website was broken in any regard is the fault of a poor marketing manager and not a poor Microsoft developer.

[cryptoz]

If a software company doesn't build its own software, then there are other, larger problems here.

(Yes, websites are software).

[Tyrannosaurs]

No, you outsource or buy where it's appropriate. They should no more build every Microsoft website than any other firm should write their own word processor.

[points]

FWIW, I disagree.

When MS announced support for facebook on the xBox, I thought "hmm why not just give users a browser". Then they announced twitter integration... "Umm how about just stuff a browser on there".

It's farcical. But OTOH, it fits right with MS's plan - they detest the www. It's open. It's free. It's not a walled garden they can monetize.

Last time I heard the web division at MS still makes a huge loss. Which leads me to believe they're not in it to make money. They're in it to mess it up, stifle progress, and keep people buying their installable software. They did an absolutely fantastic job of that for 5 years or so.

[potatolicious]

Have you used the PS3 browser? Or worse, the Wii browser?

One has to navigating the web with a joystick (have you tried it? It's fifth circle of hell terrible), the other has you suffering from cramps in 10 minutes flat.

If you've used the browsers, you know just astronomically bad those ideas are. A browser doesn't not belong on a joystick-driven device, it's slow to use and frustrating as hell. So why would MS put a browser on the Xbox?

And how exactly would a browser on the Xbox decrease their lock-in?

[points]

USB keyboard. Many people use the wii to browse.

[potatolicious]

Even if you eliminate the typing difficulties (and they are quite severe) of the platform, you still haven't replaced the mouse. On the PS3 it's tedious maneuvering of a pointer with a joystick (second order control system == frustration), on the Wii it's an arm-killing posture that is also aggravatingly imprecise.

But taking all of that out of the equation - assuming that magically the Wii and the PS3 are both capable of interacting with USB mice and keyboards... how many people do you know who have an (extension cord required) USB connection to a keyboard and mouse combo on their couch? I can count these people on one hand. In fact I can count them on 3 fingers, and all are pretty hardcore tech geeks to boot.

[CrazedGeek]

FWIW, the PS3 does support mice and keyboards. Works decently in the web browser.

[face]

An Xbox 360 has a 3.2GHz Xenon (three cores) and 512Mbs of ram [1]. Saying that it has the power of a supercomputer is a bit of a stretch (by about three orders of magnitude, #500 on the top500 list has five thousand cores [2]).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

[2] http://www.top500.org

* edit: formatting

[points]

You don't find it absolutely bizarre that it doesn't even have a web browser? Even when a tiny DSi has a very capable browser, smart phones have browsers. And a big gaming console from a supposed software company doesn't even have a web browser?

[gboyer]

I guess it's a little strange that they haven't tried to put IE on the Xbox--but I'm glad they haven't. The whole reason I have a game console is to have an appliance that is dedicated to video games. I have plenty of other devices that provide a superior browsing experience.

[points]

I agree with you - I wouldn't use a webbrowser on a games console. But the population disagrees - they do :/

[potatolicious]

I'm an avid gamer and own both the PS3 and Xbox. I've used the PS3 browser, it's an unmitigated disaster of poor functionality and even poorer usability.

The Wii browser, having used that also, is pretty much the same, plus muscle pain.

I know a lot of gamers and have yet to meet a single person who uses the browsers with any sort of regularity. In fact, the only instances where people use browsers on consoles nowadays are when the game brings it up by itself (DLC purchases, news updates, etc), and even then it's always more painful to use than a native menu would've been.

You need to cite your sources, because from where I stand - which is that of an avid gamer heavily involved in the gaming community, I simply do not see any significant usage of console browsers at all.

> "Even when a tiny DSi has a very capable browser, smart phones have browsers. And a big gaming console from a supposed software company doesn't even have a web browser?"

The major obstacle with browsers is not platform hardware, it's usability. Smartphones and the DSi have browsers because the web is (as we discovered with the iPhone) very easy to navigate with a touch device, particularly a finger-driven touch device.

It is significantly less awesome when it's driven with a joystick. In fact, the experience is downright terrible. Implementing a browser on a console with joystick (or Wiimote) controls is a waste of time and energy, and can only serve to tarnish your brand as your users struggle with why the hell you implemented such a dumb thing.

[jerhinesmith]

I'm sorry, but source? Stats? Anything other than anecdote to back that up?

I tried to find some information, but the best I could do was from an article written in 2009 (http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ps3%E2%80%99s-web-browser-usage...):

"The PS3's browser has a 0.04 share of the 'internet market', a miniscule proportion when compared to, say, the PC's 88.7 percent majority, yet it's a figure which sits comfortably ahead of the Wii's 0.01 percent."

Granted, those numbers are horribly out of date, but it would seem to indicate that the population (at large) does agree.

[face]

I agree with the rest of your point entirely.

[rbanffy]

You forgot to count the GPU. A modern GPU can pump numbers much faster than the fastest general-purpose CPU.

[sanderjd]

It certainly doesn't have the power of a modern supercomputer, but it surpasses everything on Wikipedia's supercomputer timeline until about halfway down (using the admittedly poor comparison of GHz - GFLOPS). From that point of view, I think "power of a supercomputer" is fairly reasonable.

[ZeroGravitas]

The bizarre lack of spell-check in IE has always been my personal indicator for when Microsoft stops holding onto the past and fighting the web.