Microsoft has forged closer links with consumer electronics companies in an attempt to boost the use of its software in digital media and entertainment.
They include a partnership with TiVo, the maker of digital video recorders and one of Microsoft's rivals for dominance in the age of digital entertainment, that would let users download and watch TV shows on mobile handsets.
The moves, which were due to outlined by Bill Gates in Las Vegas last night at the beginning of the annual Consumer Electronics Show, highlight efforts by the famously adversarial software giant to forge closer ties to companies that in the past have been seen as rivals. Co-operating with traditional consumer electronics companies, rather than competing with them head-on, has become central to this plan, according to industry analysts.
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