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Xbox One

Before the Xbox One launched in 2013, there was some talk of an cheap alternative device aircraft alongside the main console. Besides a minor Xbox 360 refresh, nothing of the sort ever came out, just a like rumor has surfaced yet again recently. And after thoroughly mulling over this ready-top-Xbox concept, I'm convinced that it'south a terrible idea.

While a typical hardware redesign seems inevitable for the beefy Xbox One, that'due south not what we're talking most here. This rumor is focused on a limited Apple TV-style "slim Xbox One." According to Petri IT Knowledgebase, the virtually recent rumor of a ready-pinnacle Xbox consists of a streamlined box that only runs Windows x apps, couched in wishy-washy language like "it'south not articulate if these plans have been scrapped." Even every bit the rumor is brought upwards, it'southward thrown under the bus.

Microsoft has almost certainly prototyped something forth these lines at some betoken, simply information technology just doesn't seem like a viable consumer production under electric current market weather condition. Maybe an Apple tree Goggle box competitor running Windows would have been compelling in 2010, simply it's a moisture noodle in 2016.

Xbox One UI

Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV are completely mainstream at this point, and all of those boxes run third-party apps of some sort. Offering a hundred-dollar box that can run a subset of Windows Shop apps seems overwhelmingly mediocre.

Of course, at that place are some means that Microsoft could alter upward the formula to find a more successful product. I spoke to ExtremeTech's ain hardware skilful Joel Hruska, and he said that 14nm dice-shrunk Xbox 360 guts could fit into a box roughly the size of the Wii U, fifty-fifty if the Apple TV'due south course factor is yet out of attain.

It's still unclear if the last iteration of the Xbox 360 used a 32nm / 28nm process.

It'due south still unclear if the last iteration of the Xbox 360 used a 32nm / 28nm process.

If we presume that the last version of the Xbox 360 was still built on 45nm, it implies that a 14nm die shrink could pull the architecture down to at least Wii U-level power consumption — if Microsoft went this route at all. A new Xbox 360 that supported the unabridged digital library out of the gate would plough this into a more interesting concept than "this box lets yous play Processed Beat out on your TV." And if information technology tin can piece of work as a local gameplay streaming device for the Xbox One (à la PlayStation Tv set), so much the improve.

Along those same lines, it'due south possible that Microsoft might want to get into the game streaming concern with a service like PlayStation At present. If y'all could stream 360 and Xbone games over the cyberspace on a relatively inexpensive box, that would likely do well. Of form, that runs the risk of significantly cannibalizing the sales of the Xbox 1, then that probably doesn't make much sense from a business perspective.

In the stop, Microsoft is meliorate off letting the likes of the Intel Compute Stick choice up the slack in the living room. If anyone is dying for an inexpensive fashion to run Windows on their Idiot box, that option is already bachelor, and it's only going to get improve.

Now read: Windows Media Center is dead – here are the best alternatives