Unlike the iPod (but like the iPhone), Apple TV will be cross-platform from its first day on the market, continuing Apple's embrace of the tremendous base of Windows users.
"They have not yet tapped out the discontented base of Windows users, " says Greg DeMichillie, lead analyst at market tracker Directions on Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ).
Under this arrangement, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) generally will be required to directly license and pay Dolby a base royalty rate for the right to use the Dolby technologies included in Windows 8 and installed on PCs and tablets for online and file-based content.