Boxee set-top box on its way – let the connected living room battle begin

boxee_logoBoxee, the socially driven and feisty Internet TV browser, will soon land on a set-top box of its own. Currently the media center software is only available on Mac, Windows, Linux, along with a hacked together version for the AppleTV (the closest that Boxee has come so far to appearing on a set-top box). That’s about to change, says the company.

Founder and CEO Avner Ronen writes on the official Boxee blog: “I am very happy to announce we have signed our first partnership with a CE company. At this point we can not say more about the partner or the specs of the device, but we can tell you we are working closely with them to make sure we deliver a great Boxee experience on it.”

More details on the box itself will be revealed at an upcoming Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn, NY on Dec 7th.

boxee

Of course we already knew that the company was working hard to get its software onto an array of hardware, from set-top boxes, Internet TVs, Blu-ray players, and game consoles etc. In other words, Boxee wants to remain device agnostic and, eventually, be everywhere. Or as Ronen writes: “Our goal is to be on every Connected device in the living room.”

Aah.

The battle for the connected living room you say.

That’s the same fight that Netflix, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Sony and a long list of others are participating in. Boxee may have a great user experience and a smart third-party app strategy, but to win that battle they’ll need their fair share of luck.

Or to be acquired but one of the bigger players.

Just sayin’

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

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