Not everyone, to say the least, would agree with the last speech of our multi-billionaire Bill the Gates... however, there might be something to think about when we try -as everyone does- to think of the future..
That said, what is it about? Bill says, to make it short, that all "physical" formats are dying or WILL be dying very soon, since the tidal wave is the streamed content. The all-time dream of any "pusher" would then become true and change the world, once for all, from YOUR choice to keep things and content at home to another one, which would mainly consist in the following proposal: "We Have It, You Download It"... In other words, WE have the content, you download it and forget about this silly attitude by which you have the choice to go to a shop and buy whatever you want...
PCs would then replace TVs and other outdated "receivers". Yep, but one thing is to pretend that we're all ready to tie ourselves, as we did with Sky and other content pushers, another is to understand why we would, or should accept to go back to times when we had no other choice than to receive a content, with the help of specialist magazines that tell us at what time the whole thing happens. The proposal is to replace a "push" model by another one, more flexible, thanks to Gigas and high speed pipes. The problem is that this is a competition between several channels of distribution, and not a new, user-oriented, mode of life: You had the TV, think of the PC and streamed content as the ultimate channels of... distribution.
Since the launch of the Internet as a (wonderful) meta-consciousness, everyone has been dreaming of another choice. However, all old-fashioned content distributors are keen at barring all of us from leaving THEIR paying model, and they are ready to stick to that. Billy The Great says nothing new, he simply is competing with them, not proposing anything that looks like something new... Replace a Ford by a Toyota... still a car, nothing new here.
But think of what's happening today with EasyJet, Ryanair, Skype and other Google Talk: They are simply re-modelling old fashioned business models that no-one would take as granted as our grandfathers did in the past.
It should be simply said that, even if there's some comfort at viewing some 5 minutes content through an instant download -thanks to high bandwidth and more secure transmission pipes -that's WHEN and IF they're working- there's also some discomfort at the prospect of being dependent, like we're all today for electricity (see the failures in the New Orleans or Miami grids after hurricanes...) of yet another big brother who would master the content -under what principle, under which law, under what sort of control- that we would all be supposed to love!
Billy's Media Center is great, provided that we willingly accept to be under its "push" model, very similar indeed to what the Ford model was... The story of content has been that of no choice to more choice for the consumer. Until and unless there's some real benefit to gain from very high bandwith, transmission speed and all legal issues are solved (and that is not for tomorrow), we don't see why in hell we can accept to put ourseleves again in the hands of another content distributor...
No, Mr Bill, we're not ready to abandon our shopping liberty to another Biiig Brother...