As the living room of the future converges (after years...decades of hype), it's no wonder that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple Computer, Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) want a large slice of that pie. You know, the pie that makes it easy to get that torrent of content from your PC or computer room to the living room TV and audio system?Other competitors, though, are not sitting still. Scrappy players like RealNetworks(NASDAQ:RNWK), founded by a former Microsoft alum, and TiVo(NASDAQ:TIVO), the "DVR" company, digital video recorder, wants to push its content to you. TiVo's "TiVoToGo" service has let PC users take DVR content from their TiVo boxes onto laptops and other computers for quite some time -- while even allowing DVD burning. RealNetworks has a music download service called "Rhapsody" that competes with Apple' s iTunes, Microsoft's Zune store and other services like Yahoo! Music and Napster.
It seems natural, then, for a digital music service like Real's Rhapsody to partner with another content management pioneer like Tivo and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) to ensure that RealNetworks can "get off the PC" and into digital music players, living-room DVRs and other hardware where customers want to enjoy their content. Microsoft and Apple are waiting there, though -- the battle may just moving into the pocket or the living room and away from that big beige box we call a PC.
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