Microsoft has completely forgotten the fact that one day the Xbox One will be as old as the NES is today.. And that you won't be able to buy the games new making the console MASSIVE paper weight, Good job M$
Such things have been considered for media players and DRM there (even had it come to pass once or twice), fortunately consoles are usually left hacked 9 ways before all was said and done though I have a few reservations about this current lot. In some ways I would hope they would say "here are the keys to the kingdom" if it should happen though, I know I am rarely the optimist but I am in this case.
I was going more with
http://freesatbox.net/images/SKYPLUS2.jpeg
Honestly don't even know what you're getting at here. I pointed out how already existing solutions can be superior, and you're seemingly agreeing with me - but your tone makes it sound like you don't (?).
I did
Smart TVs are anything but. I have yet to see one with a web browser above android level and not even close to a real browser, the UIs are usually terrible and just bleh on all of it really.
"the -current- consoles"
Agreed they are nicer than you might expect, still awful in terms of format support, container support, a lot of non "big boy" streaming support (poke around XBMC some time for all the random radio stations), bad for youtube let alone something more exotic like vimeo, blip or such and it goes on.
media centers
AppleTV and Windows media player are actually not bad, still nothing compared to a proper PC though. If you mean the media hard drives then granted they are often better than current consoles but current consoles are nothing special.
Wireless sharing servers
I am a fan of the consumer level NAS if for no other reason than I have actually seen regular people take backups without prompting. Still got SMB, got wireless then you have that. Given I have had wireless for years and SMB for longer. upnp is anything but and DLNA is a joke.
The short version is even though the PC is not ideal if I hold it as a gold standard the rest of the consumer market has vast vast scope for improvement. To that end the xbox one (I am so not going to get used to typing "the one" in any time soon, that said one should use your one .....) could well find itself with a decent market much like the PS3 did OK as a blu ray player. That said got to love the raspberry pi (built a few in recent weeks) and I am looking at the ouya if it will have a native XBMC and not the ho hum android XBMC.