>Xbox is the future of Microsoft. Just as Apple realized the iPod (now the iPhone) is the future of their company, Microsoft's future lies completely in their ability to execute their long term Xbox strategy.

As I said in the other message, this ex box seems better than the rest of MS, which may be a sign that they are taking this seriously, as if the company is trying to reinvent itself. Maybe it's only formally within M$ and actually operates quite independently? I've heard that they've gone an extra mile to provide full specs for the game programmers - wow.

OTOH, maybe they're doing so fine just because Sony is so bad recently (rootkit and other schemes, the M$-like shoddy approach to game programmers on PS3 (anecdotal only - hearsay - disclaim), wasting resources on pointless HD format war... just makes M$ look better than they really are?

And then there's the WII.

>What Microsoft should do is join forces with Apple and use the iPhone as a client for the Xbox.

The phone as the ubiquitous gaming terminal, plus everything else... read "Halting State" by Charles Stross. Technologically only a few years into the future, maybe 2014 or so. Imagine a world where the last two VFPers are forgotten somewhere... (just kidding, we aren't mentioned at all) and it all happens in People's Republic of Scotland ;).

Or M$ should accept Android as the protocol for their games to communicate with the rest of the world? That'd be something, eh?