Microsoft Corp. is refocusing its digital television strategy on cheaper, less complicated software, after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars and years of research into savvy TV software for which it has found very few buyers.
Microsoft will put its high-end Microsoft TV Advanced software -- aimed at creating virtual home entertainment computers -- on ice while it races to catch up with rivals that already have a huge customer base for bare-bones services like online program guides, according to several industry sources.
Microsoft declined to comment on the future of its high-end software but acknowledged it will focus on simpler services.
"We are putting considerably more resources behind a more basic broadcast-centric solution. There's clearly market demand for it," Mark Le Goy, European Marketing Manager for Microsoft TV, told Reuters on Wednesday.
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