Does Microsoft Really Think the Xbox One Fits in the Enterprise?

xbox-one

If you want to know where Microsoft is with their Xbox One all you have to do is look at their latest marketing ploy. They are actually pushing the Xbox One to the enterprise… yes you read that right. According to Microsoft the new Xbox is not just for gaming and would make a great addition to any corporate boardroom. Marques Lyons (an Xbox MVP) called the new gaming console an “entirely justifiable” expense for businesses. Lyons’ reasoning is that features such as Skype integration, Wi-Fi direct connect and of course 1080p video capability will be the driving factors for this.

What Lyons is completely missing is that companies already pay for these services through other and more long-term partners.  I cannot imagine any of the corporations I have worked for or with dropping Polycomm or Cisco in favor of putting an Xbox on the conference table. Even for large video presentations it is unlikely that an Xbox would be used. There are already a number of video solutions out there including touch screen (large) monitors to allow for white boarding during team discussion. It also looks like Lyons might have forgotten (or did not get the memo) about Microsoft pushing their Office 365 cloud complete with Lync and SharePoint. These two enterprise class tools make the Xbox One look like a toy (which it is) in terms of actual usefulness in the enterprise.

When we first read the blog post (which is now missing) we did not believe what we were reading. We double checked that the entry was not labeled satire. Even if the idea was not actually meant for the “enterprise” and was aimed at small to medium sized businesses the idea of pitching an Xbox One to a company over existing products and services is still ludicrous. We are guessing (and hoping) that this blog post was not sanctioned by Microsoft and that is the reason that it is no longer visible on the small business blog. The Xbox One in a board room as a productivity tool… not likely.

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