""In a report by Next Generation, ABI Research director Mike Wolf speculated that North American Internet-to-TV video solutions will reach US$ 1.5 billion in revenue. However, instead of the available Internet-to-TV hardware solutions, Wolf believes that it will be consoles to spur the immediate growth of the market.

 

Wolf speculates that all this will happen in the next five years. So according to his estimates, customers on next-gen consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will comprise almost 60% of the market revenue by 2012. He even notes that consoles could overtake even Steve Jobs' Apple TV.

Because of the multiple entertainment capabilities of such consoles and their requirement for broadband connections, consumers would find more value and appeal in game consoles as capable Internet-to-TV products. That doesn't include the roomy hard drive storage and the fact that the console is already next to a TV.

However, the console has a long way to go to make waves in the market. ABI Research's recently conducted study entitled "Over-the-Top Internet Video to the TV" pointed out that 71% of people who purchase video over the Internet do so on a PC. 16% of the remaining simply burns the video into DVD and watches it on TV, while 8% download and view videos on their video console.

Aside from the fact that only 12% of the surveyed people do purchase videos online, the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii will also have to contend with next-generation Internet-to-TV products from Comcast and Netgear, aside from the Apple TV and Sony's own future Internet-to-TV entertainment products.

But consoles already have an edge in growth: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft all provide online purchase options by drawing funds from accounts. If Wolf's predictions do come true, analysts believe the console rise in the market will be phenomenal. "“This is just the beginning,” Wolf concluded.

What should an Xbox 360 do to make it big in Japan? Enlist the help of flippy haired boybands to shake their bonbons and flash those pearly whites for a TV spot that will double as plug for their latest single? Which they have already done, so why then is Microsoft's Xbox 360 still having a miserable time in the Land of the Rising Sun?

Analysts like Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, a leading financial services and investment firm that provides private and institutional brokerage, investment banking, private capital, research, and asset management to individual, institutional and issuing clients, thinks that it more of a cultural difference rather than being product based.

"I think it will be exceedingly difficult for Microsoft to succeed in Japan, due to cultural bias against American/foreign companies that threaten established Japanese companies. Microsoft is taking on two Japanese companies, both of which have well-developed relationships with Japanese publishers, and both of which have superior first-party development capability (compared to Microsoft)," says Pachter. Adding that in hindsight it may have been a smart move to have partnered with a Japanese company like Toshiba to put an HD-DVD drive in the Xbox 360.

Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies, a company that leverages more than three decades of analysis, strategizing, and hands-on corporate advisory board experience, also shares the same concern by Pachter. Using the success of Sony and Nintendo as example, he says, "Sony and Nintendo do well in Japan because they have a deep understanding of their consumers' lifestyles. Microsoft has created a lifestyle product in the 360 and much of the lifestyle it caters to is U.S.- and U.K.-based. So for Microsoft to succeed in Japan, they need great games for that market, but they also need to provide a product that fits into the Japanese lifestyle and culture. That may mean a very different looking and feeling Xbox 360 [for Japan]."

But ABI Research's Mike Wolf, doesn't exactly have the same sentiments as Pachter and Bajarin. He says that what the company needs is a respectable market share to lure in Japanese developers and "exclusive must-haves" for the console to have the Japanese flocking over it.

"For all the talk of supporting the Japanese market with relevant titles, the [Xbox 360] launch list -- and even today -- shows a dearth of titles that will entice the Japanese game player. Ninety-Nine Nights and Final Fantasy XI are a start, but what they need are some exclusive must-haves that would drive the Japanese consumer to the console."

The industry representatives have had their viewpoints heard, time to hear the voice of the masses. So, why do you think Microsoft is still not doing so well in Japan?