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Mistake #4: 20GB is too small

Even if by some great fortune Microsoft saw the light and began to integrate MSN Music and somehow could offer high-definition movies, the next hurdle for Microsoft to overcome are problems with the HDD.

Now, I understand very well that Microsoft's decision to go with a 2.5" HDD was aesthetic and that budget constraints led to the relatively small size of the HDD. The problem is that while it's possible to read from a USB 2.0 external HDD, Microsoft does not provide a mechanism for downloading content directly to these external drives. I can understand keeping game demos and other code on the controlled Microsoft HDD, but media and trailers could safely have been stored on an external drive.

It's as if Microsoft really wanted the Xbox 360 to be the media hub, but then decided that they didn't want to cut into the Windows XP Media Center Edition market. Big mistake. MCE2005 is a one-time sale to system builders. The Xbox 360 would have been a way to get the console into more homes (opening up the market for titles like Yourself Fitness) and if they had thought about the MSN Music and movie download idea, the long terms gains would have been substantial.

From a technical standpoint, the use of Serial ATA also has consequences. Suppose that somewhere along the line, a larger hard drive is released, allowing gamers easier access to large stores of music. How would you transfer data from the 20GB hard drive to the new one (think about all your saved games)? Knowing Microsoft, they may require you to buy a 64MB memory card to transfer your saved games and gamer profile. Maybe they could let your upload all 20GB of data to a central server and then force you to download it again to your new hard drive. The problem is that with SATA, it's a point-to-point protocol.

Had Microsoft opted for a USB 2.0 connection, which would have provided more than enough bandwidth for the slower 2.5" HDD, it would have been possible to "piggyback" the 20GB drive on top of the upgraded drive.

Microsoft could have done a lot more with Xbox Live if not for these small oversights (which have far reaching consequences). The Xbox 360 is unlikely to be a Trojan horse to the Living Room. I'm not going to even touch up on the oversight of the Xbox 360 not recognizing NTFS formatted external drives…