CES 2005: This is going to cause unhappiness

INTEL'S HOME MEDIA STRATEGY is about to take a sharp left turn, and take it into waters that it has only ventured into before. It is going to launch a complete barebones system for home media centers. This is going to irritate a lot of vendors all at once, and have some mind-bending PR explanation to it that will probably drive me into a foetal position. The device itself is a complete machine lacking only CPU, HD an RAM. Graphics are powered by an X300SE video card, adequate for putting pixels on a screen, but not so much for gaming, with dual Avermedia NTSC tuners backing it. There is also a 16X DVD+R drive included, and the standard MS Media Center remote comes in the box. The back side is filled with ports, both in and out, and it should connect to most existing devices in your entertainment center. The HTPC will sell for about $750-850 with typical configurations going for $1300 or so when you put in the parts that Intel does not include. While there is no official word, we plan on asking Chipzilla if there is an A64 version coming, it makes a lot of sense for Intel to cover all bases here. These systems will be sold through two distributors, TNH and Synnex (SP?). Even then, it is said to only be given to authorized buyers, so you can't just pick one up if you don't like the color choices Shuttle offers. Look for systems based on them from most tier-2 vendors in a few months. µ