On Sunday evening, amidst other “connected home” apps, Bill Gates announced that Microsoft will be bringing its IPTV platform and the Xbox 360 together by porting the IPTV environment to the Xbox 360.

From an IPTV perspective this is interesting news to say the least, as it opens 10s of millions of homes to services without requiring a new set top box.

From a motion applications perspective this announcement, it brings Microsoft’s lack of a motion controller system for the Xbox 360 to the fore. PS3 and Wii both have motion controllers for gaming… MS doesn’t. And from the IPTV side of things, we’re starting to see vendors like Hillcrest Labs start to make some progress getting into the set top box.

With this move, Microsoft has the opportunity to meet these competitors from both camps on a single platform.

Read the full announcement here.