The missing pieces that will allow consumers to use their PCs as digital media hubs are fiber-based broadband links to the home and seamless integration of multiple devices, Dell Chairman Michael Dell said in his keynote address to attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show here on Tuesday. "Customers say they want to use their PCs for digital home entertainment, but it really hasn"t caught on because of two things: Broadband isn"t where it needs to be for reliable performance, and the industry hasn"t made it easy for devices to work together," Dell said.
To fix the bandwidth problem, Dell urged telecom companies to lay fiber-optic broadband Internet links to homes, something Verizon is offering through a pilot program in the United States, he said. And to improve device integration, Dell suggested that hardware vendors should take their inspiration from Sling Media, whose Slingbox enables users to share video or music content between different platforms.