Matt Goyer’s Media Center Blog ? MCE at 14 million units Matt Goyer points out a link from the Seattle PI quoting Robbie Bach saying that Microsoft has now shipped 14 million MCE units.
To be fair, many of the major OEMs, Dell, Gateway, etc. are shipping MCE as the default option these days with no additional cost to customers. Another interesting metric might be how many MCE machines with TV tuners have shipped (not that people can’t use their MCE machines without tuners of course).
Even moreso with Vista around the corner you are going to see a mass proliferation of Media Center ready PCs shipping out there. This combined with the explosion in XBox sales and their added usefulness as Media Center extender units positions Microsoft to have an extremely strong toehold into the home media market in the next few years.
Assuming that they get all of the kinks worked out of MCE Vista and that the CableCARD HD strategy integrates easily the next few years ahead could really be the time for MCE to take off in the mass market.
for content companies like the one that employs me (and the one that employs you), all that matters is that the MCE computer has an internet connection. The tuner is great (and a requirement for my own MCE machines) but the real fun is 3rd party internet apps, like a zooomr MCE-enabled web app.