Wow, even an MS MVP hates the new Microsoft Media Extenders!

Chris Lanier's Blog:

v2 Extenders Let Down Big in Price Points

Well, so much for v2 Extenders being anything close to a success. I’ve been talking about what price points a successful Extender needs to be at for years (2005 here people), and today we find out that D-Link’s offering is set to retail for $350, and considering that Linksys’ is most likely built on the exact same hardware it isn’t likely to be much different in price (Updated: Just announced at $300 for standalone, and $350 for DVD/Extender. Not bad in comparison to D-Link, but nothing to get excited about)

What doesn’t Microsoft understand here? First the public’s feeling is that they are limiting Extenders to the Xbox 360 so they can grab all the profit (not really since they lose on every 360, but that’s the general public’s feeling) so their solution is have partners add Wireless-N and additional codec support in standalone v2 Extenders and sell it for $80 more than an Xbox 360? Even better, codec support on the Xbox 360 Extender doesn’t seem like it will improve much so their is no "good" Extender to purchase for someone like me.