Orb Networks goes free

Michael Gartenberg | March 29, 2005, 07:57 AM

I've been a big fan of Orb since I first tested the product and this move makes a lot of sense. Access to my own content has now trended down to zero with the ability to up sell me on other services once I'm already using Orb technology. It's potentially very disruptive. Give me access for example to the several thousand songs I already own over any connected device. Then add access to perhaps a million other songs for a modest fee. Likewise, I can now access my cable lineup and and all my recorded shows wherever I am but what if I didn't have a media center PC. It would be a simple to add on TV services or movie rentals in this model. Since nothing gets downloaded, DRM is a much less of an issue. The real question, who will but these folks now that they have proved the technology before they come to expensive. I know if I worked at one of several companies, I'd be working on buying these guys as soon as I could.