PaidContent: Microsoft Sets Aside $20 Billion For Media

PaidContent comments on reports that Microsoft plans to blow half its research and development budget over the next few years on gaining entry into the media business - a sum totaling as much as $20 billion. Specifically, it hopes to develop technologies that will make people use its platform for delivery of video and audio materials. The development of fast, cheap and easier-to-use media playing technologies on other platforms has posed somewhat of a threat to Microsoft's long-term dominance, as the operating system market moves increasingly into home entertainment and other devices.