Nobody can deny that Microsoft have done it. They have become a success in only the second generation of their console product. And against embedded competition.
Xbox is now a license to print money. And if they manage it right it will become a bigger cash cow than their PC software ever was.
Microsoft’s genius was that they saw beyond the box and they saw beyond the packaged games. They realised that the future of gaming was an online service. An online service that will ultimately work with several different boxes. And an online service that is growing to be independent of packaged games. Xbox Live is that service, the biggest game portal in the world and by far the most valuable property in the history of video gaming.
Eventually you will be able to access Live from your television, from your phone and from the seatback screen when you are flying. It will be all things to all people. What we have seen thus far is only the beginning.
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Places you won’t ever be using Xbox Live: any PC, Mac or netbook, any handheld console, any non-Microsoft home console (i.e. the majority), any non-WinMo phone (i.e. the vast majority), most set-top boxes and media centres, the web.
XBL, like iTunes, is ideal for milking one narrow, proprietary channel, but it’s still a walled garden.
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I thought you can use Xbox Live with a PC (and netbook). http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/live/
And the upcoming Zune HD is a handheld console, which will work with Live.
You should be able to access Live with the Android phone web browser.
I think Microsoft want as many people as possible inside their tent giving them money so they will try to be as platform agnostic as possible. But obviously different elements of Live will work on different platforms.
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I use Xbox-Live nearly every day on my PC at work to message people and check rivals Gamerscore, so the OP is way off the mark.