Less Important Wars Being Fought In the Wrong Arena

With a few real wars going on, I don't expect many of you out there are paying attention to the hyped battles over the up-and-coming home entertainment technology. There is the "Format War" pitting Sony's Blu-Ray vs. Toshiba's HD-DVD over who will eventually get us to re-purchase our entire movie collection yet again. So far, on that one, it looks like they didn't wait long enough for people to forget about getting scorched siding with Betamax during the last Format War; the overwhelming consumer response has been "You pick one, then we'll consider buying movies we already own yet again."

The "Battle For the Living Room" has an ever-changing array of gaming and internet companies vying to get out of the computer hutch and into the entertainment center. The idea being, I suppose, that the living room is where the respectable amusement happens. One of the things these companies seem to be overlooking is that less and less of any sort of entertainment is happening in the living room anymore. The real prime real estate is not the entertainment center anymore. With people on the move all the time, the truly prime entertainment real estate is the pocket.