REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Microsoft used a Nevada trade show to reveal cooperative ventures with consumer electronics firms to hike its software use in digital media and entertainment.
Among the new deals being announced this week in Las Vegas:
-- a partnership with TiVo, the maker of digital video recorders and one of Microsoft's rivals for dominance in the age of digital entertainment, that would let users download and watch TV shows on mobile handsets;
-- a partnership with consumer electronics companies like LG Electronics and Panasonic to enable TVs to tap into programming stored on a PC; and
-- a partnership with camera makers like Nikon that would transfer pictures remotely from a camera into a digital album stored on a PC.
The ventures mark a switch from the software maker's formerly adversarial strategy, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
"They have to be a very good partner, so people don't resist their platform," said Rick Sherlund, software analyst at Goldman Sachs, adding that companies like TiVo may have their own ambitions to create digital entertainment platforms, eventually rivaling Microsoft.
