GrooveMaster: Re: You maybe missed this Spoke.
No, I didn't. You should, perhaps, hone your reading skills a bit. I said, as you quoted, "They are not, nor are they ever likely to become, a communications chipset company."
They have dabbled a bit in hardware. The xBox is a perfect example, as is the STB you referred to. However, these boxes are simply rebadged hardware manufactured by other companies intended as devices to be sold at slim margins for the purpose of selling more software or services. See the article you quoted:
The new box, which is being made by Thomson and sold under the RCA brand...
Microsoft has little to nothing to do with the hardware, let alone the silicon inside. I reiterate that they are not in the silicon business.