Microsoft is looking to change the status of its Xbox console from a simple gaming platform to a full-fledged home entertainment hub. So far, this initiative is progressing nicely.

Here to discuss more on the matter is SiliconAngle founder John Furrier, who says the Xbox represents the new consumer era of cloud, mobile and social, while Windows is associated with the much less trendy PC.  Microsoft has, and still is investing quite a bit in its OS brand – the company is prepping up for the roll out of Windows 8 in less than two weeks, but the increased emphasis on the console has also been made very clear.

Win8 will ship with Xbox Music on launch, a decision that underscored Microsoft’s goal of expanding beyond game distribution to other content as well. The existing Xbox franchise will play a central role in this shift, which Furrier expects to be very successful on the long haul.

The consumer cloud is accelerating. New reports suggest the industry realized 75 percent of the growth projected for 2012 in only six months, and more than 375 million people use cloud services today. This number is expected to pass the 600 million mark next year.

Furrier ‘s take is that the personal cloud space is probably growing at a much faster rate than what the research suggests. He notes that among other things, Box.net’s subscriptions were not calculated into these figures.

Meanwhile at Yahoo, former Google head of sales Henrique De Castro was recently hired as COO. The executive will be paid $56 million a year, a well-deserved salary according to Furrier considering his track record and his high ranking new position. Furrier says that in practice, De Castro will likely fill all the demands of a co-CEO.

Furrier also discussed the recent fuss around a GigaOm article that claimed data science is ‘easy’. There is, in fact, a lot of interest in this line of work and even more demand for analytical talent, but data scientists are in short supply for a reason (see here for Furrier’s full analysis).

For the complete clip of the morning News Desk segment, see below.