My take is that M will always seek to be at the forefront of technolgy developments. They will try to "set" the technology reference where they can (win or lose, per MLP and DVD-A), to provide a market platform for themselves. They'll offer stunning packaged solutions that do them credit both in marketing and intellectual terms and, I think, look for ways to achieve product penetration in high end aspects of the audio and video markets.

M offer a stunning set of "one house" audio and video solutions with high quality and high credibility for those that buy them. But, surely, there'll always be people that want different or better than M offer where separate components are felt to be the way to go? (the recent threads on transports, master clocks and external DACs show that, for me).

I think commoditisation of products only works where technology stability or size and longevity of market warrant. Audio and Video technology seems to be too be fast moving and, at the higher end, too small or volatile in market terms to resist separate solutions.

Regards,
Steve

Steve