>>Define exciting.
>
>
>Remember when DVR first came out?

That was probably about the time I finally could afford a VCR ;).

>Microsoft came up with Ultimate TV or something like that. It could have been a huge deal.
>
>But TiVo came out with one of the highest quality tech products ever made, in my opinion. Microsoft couldn't execute the idea, but a newly born company could.

You have a point there... actually a lot of them. M$ had about 200 other things to think about, take care of, watch for, keep in mind and generally be aware of, being what it is. TiVo had just one: make it. Of course greatness lies in the small in such cases. You can't expect ballet from a mastodon.

>As a result, if it weren't for Xbox, TiVo would have a better infrastructure in place than Microsoft for what's coming.

Xbox seems to be too good to be M$ ;). As if it's a foreign body. Not being that kind of gamer myself (too wired to the keyboard - can't even shoot with my mouse, and can't get my mind around that funny piece of plastic that you have to actually hold like a couple of imaginary knitting needles and THAT's your... controls? never got used to that) I couldn't really say, but having children on both sides of the fence, the former box is good.

>So, by exciting, I mean having the opportunity to apply free thought to innovative product designs in a competitive market at an influential time in the development of technology that out society is likely to use for a long time to come.

In that manner yes - but not by sitting among the lawyers and several layers of hierarchy that M$ is. Find a competing company and do your fight from there - much more exciting and who knows, may even feel right, specially if it wrestles at least one monopoly out of anyone's hands.