Microsoft to unveil web connected television at CES: reports

Microsoft is reported to be readying a web-connected television at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in its bid to compete against Apple TV and Google TV.

The company could use this week's the CES which kicks off today to introduce a connected-television offering to take on Google TV and Apple TV.

''Microsoft's going to make a splash in this market with a stripped-down version of Windows tailored for set-top boxes and connected TVs,'' Brier Dudley, a columnist with The Seattle Times, predicted in a 2 January article widely circulated across the web. ''The software is a version of its embedded device software, overlaid with the Windows Media Center interface, with media streaming and remote-control capabilities.''

According to analysts given that Microsoft is a ''fast follower'', a company that moves to exploit trends once they emerge on the marketplace, the move would hardly be surprising.

In December, Apple reported sales of 1 million Apple TV units in the device's first two-and-a-half months of release, pointing to the viability of a box that allows users to watch content ported from the cloud. Google's decision to defer the rollout of Google TV sets and companion boxes, originally meant for CES could provide just the right opportunity for Microsoft to push ''Windows TV.''

Meanwhile, according to analysts, all does not seem to be right with the technology industry's most lucrative partnership-the long-running alliance between Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp.
With sales of tablets, smartphones and televisions powered by rival technologies on the rise the two technology giants are finding it difficult to tango, they say.