Microsoft's Xbox One video game console is your next work computer
Once the console got a Netflix app circa 2008, we spent even more time together. Just about the only thing I didn't use it for was getting any kind of work done. It's a games console, after all.
But the Xbox One, the successor to the Xbox 360, is increasingly well-positioned to do everything - games, entertainment, productivity. And at a current $350 MSRP (with a copy of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, to boot), the Xbox One may well be your next computer.
The first data point here is Microsoft's longstanding commitment to putting a full-blown version of the forthcoming Windows 10 operating system on the Xbox One console, though it's being coy about the timing.
This is important, because a major selling point for Windows 10 is "universal apps." This is the idea that any Windows 10 app will work on any Windows 10 device - phone, tablet, computer, futuristic HoloLens or, once it gets the update, the Xbox One. It also means there's nothing stopping you from running, say, the Windows 10 versions of Microsoft Office on a Windows 10-updated Xbox One.
That might not seem like something you'd want to do right now. While the Xbox controller is great for playing games, and works well enough as a remote control when watching movies, it's not exactly a rich input device for writing term papers.
Most of the ensuing conversation focused on how this would let the Xbox One handle a wider array of games - hardcore gamers favor a mouse and keyboard setup for reflex-intensive games like first-person shooters and strategy games.
But there is plenty of other potential: An Xbox One with a mouse and keyboard, and access to the full range of Windows 10 apps, makes for a cheap $350 computer that can rock Microsoft Office but still play the graphics-intensive games of today.
Considering that the Xbox One already lets you stream games from the console to a Windows 10 PC, it doesn't seem that far-fetched to imagine that Microsoft wants to bring the two platforms closer together. In fact, the Xbox One's main menu already looks more than a little bit like Windows 10's Start menu.
Just as the Surface Pro tablet is now Microsoft's flagship tablet/laptop hybrid, the Xbox One could become Microsoft's flagship desktop computer/gaming console hybrid, giving the company a foothold into a market where currently it has none.