Yet Another Set Top Box

There are reports today that Blockbuster wants to launch a new set top box. I guess the idea is to offer a competitor to the Netflix/Roku box.

Blockbuster is thinking about it all wrong. They are paying attention to the Roku/hardware part of the puzzle. Instead they should be paying attention to Netflix offering their content on multiple platforms like Macs, Windows, Roku and TiVo.

But a new box? That doesn’t seem like the answer.

We continue to see new hardware for consumers wanting a better experience on the big screen. But locking the device to a particular serivce or closed network doesn’t make any sense to me. So I guess I really don’t understand these new set tops.

That’s like your browser only working with a few websites. Can you imagine an ESPN PC for example? It just wouldn’t work.

We need the exact opposite of these things. We need something open.

Open to all hardware, content, open source and web services.