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Microsoft pitches Xbox One to small businesses

CTLance

Member
Well, I don't begrudge them for trying to sell their hardware, but the idea of someone seriously attempting to sell a game console as a business tool makes me giggle.

Still, them treating it like it's a locked down PC with access to staple MS software is kinda telling. I kind of dread where this is going.
 

wildfire

Banned
Depending on how good Skype is this could be competitive. Video conferencing setups are pricy. Makes sense. The brand will work against them though.

The Xbox brand would be a hindrance if the company brand wasn't Microsoft.

A few people here have never worked a Corporate or Government job before I see. My agency has literally bought over 20 of these.

http://www.jtfbus.com/jtf/item.cfm?ID=7991

Just for Skype and Powerpoint presentations.

Made a mistake earlier thinking this was priced too high but that's including the screen which makes a lot more sense.
 

GodofWine

Member
This reeks of something...

Also, now Comcast is pushing their X1, totally different machine, not MS related, but its an interactive cable box and it sure may confuse some people....confused me, had to google it to be sure it was the xbone being offered from comcast.

....buy a 500 box to skype, meanwhile you have 100 PCs in the office...
 

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
Nothing wrong with a laptop or modern tablet to skype in HD with.

For a dedicated video conferencing set up neither of these would make much sense and both would be over (or around for the tablet) $500.

I'm involved in a project at the company I work at to look at dedicated video conferencing solutions for our conference rooms, etc and this doesn't seem as horrible an idea as some here are making it seem. Dedicated Cisco or polycom units are extremely pricey (we've demoed both) and kind of unnecessary.

Our office down in Texas actually uses Kinect 1's for things like badging in by face recognition too.

This isn't as crazy as some of you make it seem.


Yet the One is much cheaper than most corporate PC solutions. Our PC's come in at around $1700 and the webcams we use are $100 for solid 1080p cameras.
 

liquidtmd

Banned
Brad, Executive 1: "Here on slide F, we can see that we're reaching Business Profit year on year from 2014. Now just let me move onto slide G Gary can you tell the Kinect to move on.

Gary, Executive 2: "Sure thing, just a second"

4f4502755d59d.gif


*Kinect Registers Movement, moves on*

Potential Investor: "Wait, what did he just do? And is that an Xbox?"
 

megalowho

Member
Why are most of you mocking this?
I work at a business that does a lot of video conferencing and there are a lot of established setups for this kind of stuff that companies have invested in. Skype + a webcam in a boardroom is nothing new either, and cheaper. It just seems to speak of a lack of focus for their console, unless Xbox Office was a pillar from its inception. As mentioned elsewhere, Kinect for PC seems like a better product for the market.
 

Chokomofo

Banned
So, the thing that stands out to me, and I haven't read all of the posts in this thread ( so kudos to whoever mentioned it before me), is that he says to small business, "Hey! No matter where your clients and co-workers are... communicate with them via the X1!"

On its face, that's a great proposal. X1 is probably going to be much better than a lot of webcams, and the service may be very well done.

But... what about the fact that the majority of people that don't live in America aren't in "Tier 1" countries? Eh... it's a good idea for small US businesses, maybe... with US clients... but not international, and it won't be for years.

Because it doesn't exactly scream professionalism if, when a potential customer comes into your meeting room, they notice that you're using a games console for your video conferencing setup?
He's pitching it to small businesses. Not Fortune 500 companies. People understand that small business won't be able to afford everything amazing, and some people (myself included) might find the unconventional use of this system as a plus. Shows the dude/company can think outside the box and utilize all resources available to them.

As a small business, I doubt that this would signal a lack of professionalism. That's what the meeting is for.
 

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
Let me guess the commercial will be "I'm a Xbox Oner Xboner!" (play on I'm a IBM'er)
 

Flayer

Member
What this really reminds me of is last gen when Sony sold all those PS3s to the military to do number crunching or something and then trumpeted it like it was some cool thing. There doesn't seem much point because no-one is gonna be buying games for these things. Pretty sure Sony made a massive loss on all those PS3s while MS seem to be scoring a PR own goal with this move for little or no financial gain.
 
I kind of wish the xone just ran straight up windows 8 and functioned like a normal computer. I might buy one instead of a desktop PC if it did.
 

M3d10n

Member
60$ are a steal compared to Lync meetings or any other business solution out there.

I meant, compared to using Skype itself for free in any of the many other devices it's available, some of which also supporting other features like file transfers.
 

mbmonk

Member
Logitech has an HD cam for Skype made for families in the living room for $200 supposedly. I am not sure how it stacks up to the camera on Xbone. It probably can't read your heartbeat though :(

Our office down in Texas actually uses Kinect 1's for things like badging in by face recognition too.

But the Kinect sensor is probably hooked to a PC not a 360. MS Selling the sensor to business makes some sense, but I am not sure about the console & sensor, assuming that is what MS is saying.
 

Xater

Member
Logitech has an HD cam for Skype made for families in the living room for $200 supposedly. I am not sure how it stacks up to the camera on Xbone. It probably can't read your heartbeat though :(



But the Kinect sensor is probably hooked to a PC not a 360. MS Selling the sensor to business makes some sense, but I am not sure about the console & sensor, assuming that is what MS is saying.

That is exactly what they are saying. The even mention using IE on the Xbone to get to documents on Skydrive.To me that's an even more ridiculous use than the Skype thing.
 

Row

Banned
He's pitching it to small businesses. Not Fortune 500 companies. People understand that small business won't be able to afford everything amazing, and some people (myself included) might find the unconventional use of this system as a plus. Shows the dude/company can think outside the box and utilize all resources available to them.

As a small business, I doubt that this would signal a lack of professionalism. That's what the meeting is for.

Why would a small businer owner buy a xb1 instead of a laptop which woukd be much cheaper and far more useful as you're not in a closed software environment

You cannot spin this as a good idea
 
He's pitching it to small businesses. Not Fortune 500 companies. People understand that small business won't be able to afford everything amazing, and some people (myself included) might find the unconventional use of this system as a plus. Shows the dude/company can think outside the box and utilize all resources available to them.

I totally disagree. I used to work for a company with precisely ten employees, and we wouldn't have dreamed of doing something so amateurish. It not only suggests that your company is desperately short of financial resources, it suggests that no-one in your organization has sufficient technical skill to install a web cam onto a PC.
 

CLEEK

Member
It is a good idea. The video conferencing capabilities of the Xbone is meant to be excellent, offering great value for money compared to other VC solutions.
 

Skyzard

Banned
I want to think it's because MS is really worried and looking into backups but I'm pretty sure they're just maximising sales like Sony did with pushing the cell for businesses/researching with the PS3.


But yeah small businesses generally won't find the xbox one more useful than a netbook lol. Why would they :S Seems like a tax evasion thing, bet a lot of those xboxes don't end up in the workplace. Do taxmen still go round and check that stuff?
 

Chokomofo

Banned
I totally disagree. I used to work for a company with precisely ten employees, and we wouldn't have dreamed of doing something so amateurish. It not only suggests that your company is desperately short of financial resources, it suggests that no-one in your organization has sufficient technical skill to install a web cam onto a PC.
How in the world does it suggest that? If the person investing in your company flies to a conclusion like, "They bought a $500 machine with an HD webcam instead of a $500 PC and a $100 HD webcam, so clearly they can't install (read: plug in a USB cord) a webcam on their PC, when they've done the exact same thing on their Xbox One!"

I'll give you the possibly illusion that it makes the company SEEM short of financial resources, but a look at the financials will tell you all you need to know on that end. Are you really going to invest in someone without looking at that first?
 

CLEEK

Member
If Sony was doing this, the Sony fans would say how great of an idea it is.

I'm a Sony fan, and I'm saying its a great idea that MS are doing this. They're leveraging Skype, Linc and Skydrive, along with the native video of Kinect. Sony don't have the applications to integrate like this.

I just don't understand why folks think this is a bad idea. MS have been planning it for a long time. I was told about in January.
 

Pillville

Member
Let's just hope this doesn't take off. They will be adding more and more business features.
Does it even play games anymore?
 
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