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Microsoft works with partners to dethrone iPod

updated 07:50 am EDT, Thu August 11, 2005

MS fires warning shot

Microsoft executives said that the iPod this holiday season, as it works with its partners to release products that are more competitive with the iPod. In an interview with Bloomberg News, the head of Microsoft's Digital Media Division said the company was working with Royal Philips, Samsung, and Creative Technology to design and test music players that rival iPod: "Come this fall there is going to be a number of devices that get close to competing with Apple's iPod," Huggers said in an interview in San Francisco yesterday. By the second quarter of next year "there is going to be a whole lineup of products that can compete with Apple in industrial design, usability, functionality and features."

by MacNN Staff

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velocitychannel
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Sep 2000

0

08/11, 08:01am | report spam | close Reply |
Okay

They have been saying this since the iPod came out. They may be able to duplicate the design, but they will never have the coolness factor or--most importantly--the iTune Music Store.

This is like Ford creating a car to compete with a Bentley.

JackNN
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2005

0

08/11, 08:07am | report spam | close Reply |
Uh-huh

So the best they can hope for is to "get close to competing" with the iPod?

sammaffei
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2004

0

08/11, 08:26am | report spam | close Reply |
Almost 4 years

and Microsoft finally comes up with a comparable product.

Sounds like Mac OS versus Windows 3.1 all over again. Hopefully, Apple will fair better in this race.

Microsoft conniving wannabes who will sell their mother for market dominance.

mouseketter
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2004

0

08/11, 08:27am | report spam | close Reply |
What are they going to do

What are they going to do? Come up with a Windows patch that will disable iTunes?

Make CD's that will set a computer on fire if a user tries to import it into anything that does not carry the Microsoft seal of approval?

A iPod buy back. Give us your iPod and we will give you $50.00 bucks towards a Zen? Oh wait they may really try that one.

I do not mind companies coming out with competitors to the iPod. I do believe competition is a good thing. I am just tired of the so called "iPod killers of the month".

Creative is the worst. First it was the Zen... then it was the Zen Micro... now it is the Zen Vision thats going to be the next iPod killer.

msuper69
Mac Elite

Joined: Jan 2000

0

08/11, 08:29am | report spam | close Reply |
and ...

by the time these new "cool" devices are actually on the market, Apple shall have new iPods that will make them not so cool.

Philip J. Fry
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jul 2005

0

08/11, 08:54am | report spam | close Reply |
Funny

It's going to take several companies to try and compete with Apple on design and so forth...wow, amazing.

cebritt
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2000

0

08/11, 08:59am | report spam | close Reply |
Google is a bigger...

...worry for Bill Gates than the iPod. As long as Apple keeps upgrading the iPod, Microsoft won't be able to catch up.

blidd
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2003

0

08/11, 09:07am | report spam | close Reply |
Creative has Increased

it player sales by 260% making next to non profit on it. In the same periode Apple Increased its sale by 600% Gaining markedshare nuff said.

climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

0

08/11, 09:31am | report spam | close Reply |
too many iPods out there

this is like saying they're going to be competitive in the Indy 500 after spotting the lead car 250 laps.

Apple is too far ahead. Too many iPods out there. They've lapped the competition so many times... the competitors have to try, but they are doomed to failure. Gates should worry more about Google and getting Vista out there.

climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2001

0

08/11, 09:32am | report spam | close Reply |
creative Chapt. 11

and Creative is near bankruptcy aren't they???

give it up Sony/Microsoft/everyone else. The iPod is the shiznit. You can't beat it. By the time you catch up to how good the iPod is today, Apple will have lapped you several more times.

Foe Hammer
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

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08/11, 09:45am | report spam | close Reply |
Innovation Begins At Home

Bill can't even get rid of the iPod within the walls of his own company. If his own employees won't switch, I'd say he's facing a bit of an uphill climb in the marketplace.

snapjack
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2002

0

08/11, 09:50am | report spam | close Reply |
Real competion

I think the real competion will come from cell phones. Storage is the main issue there. Apple is all over this and will start to bring out devices that are way ahead of what's out now.

I love it, though, when they make those statements about a killer because when they crash and burn it must be a very humiliating mouthfull they have to swallow.

zac4mac
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 1999

0

08/11, 09:58am | report spam | close Reply |
re mousketter -

"A iPod buy back. Give us your iPod and we will give you $50.00 bucks towards a Zen? Oh wait they may really try that one."

Dell DID try that one - it died quietly after boucoup Mac Heds called Dell asking to buy the traded in iPods.

heheheheh

Z

ibugv4
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2003

0

08/11, 10:41am | report spam | close Reply |
i dont see belkin

belkin, dlo, NONE of what makes iPod so successful are listed. Meaning: I spent $7 for a car charger and $8 for a iSkin for my iPod on ebay. These retail for about $20/ea and I think that's just too expensive for these items since they are like 3 years old (I don't have a current iPod). No other play has Mercedes in-car connect options, no other play has as many cases from GUCCI and Luis Vutton, no other play can match iPod in the ACCESSORIES department which we ALL know is the tried and true method of what makes a product last. Plain and simple: iPod connects to more cars, more computers, more everything than anything else. I'm cheap, and buy total j** ripoff aftermarket stuff for my iPod, like my $1 retractable dock cable, my $7 generic car charger and my immitation iSkin ... all of these items work great and combined cost me LESS than any car charger at Apple Retail + tax. That's what makes iPod #1: anyone can get one from $100 - $500 and get accessories for it at any Walmart, Target, or eBay from $1-$500. When Creative offers me a $7 case and a $5 car charger... I'll conisder their player. Oterhwise, via la iPod!

hitoro
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

08/11, 10:48am | report spam | close Reply |
if there's any survivor

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/08/11/creative_results_q4_05/

jhorvatic
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

08/11, 11:29am | report spam | close Reply |
It has been said over and

This has been said over and over that there next player will dethrone the iPod. Well? So far according to the previous story above by Global Market Research no one has even comes close. I seriously doubt that anyone can. Why? Apple has the whole widget and has designed the whole widget from both a software stand point and the hardware. It is all integrated seamlessly into there music store as well. You don't need a stupid browser that blocks one or the other platform. And it just works easily.

just a poster
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

0

08/11, 01:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
What's Microsoft?

Do they make anything that actually works?

MacnnGregor
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2004

0

08/11, 01:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
A couple of things ...

Isn't is absolutely amazing that all the R&D depts of Sony, MS, Phillips, etc. can't match little Apple!?!?!? Always makes me smile.

I am amazed that Apple has been able to keep its dominance in a way it didn't with the pc. I would have thought by now someone would have gotten their wma act together. I would have thought by now that Apple would have had to open either iPod h/w or FairPlay s/w to the market to preserve its dominance in the other. Cringely has posited that the iTMS was the golden egg to save by opening up to other hardware, but what this report suggests is that the minute MS and others actually come up with a solution, I think Apple could enable wma on its iPod and that would destroy any "advantage" for the iPod killers for another 5 years! That would mean admitting to hardware for the long haul. Of course Apple has the headstart to give it time to make that choice if it ever needs to.

At the same time Piper Jaffery (not an unbias viewpoint) has shown that iTMS itself is becoming the significant revenue source that Cringley described. Possibly up to 10% revenue in the future?!?! Apple really does have its cake and can eat it anytime it wants to. Now if they can just get iPods into the hands of every nouveau middle class person in China......!!!!!

Also I am more and more thinking that phones will never be more than a minor part of the mp3 hardware landscape. The real next "killer device" has yet to be found that integrates pda, music and telephonics. Hopefully it's embryo is in a Cupertino lab.

porieux
Baninated

Joined: Mar 2001

0

08/11, 02:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
talk is cheap

actions speak louder than words

darcybaston
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: May 2000

0

08/11, 02:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
wrong choice of words

"Competing" shouldn't be confused with "immitating".

notehead
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

08/11, 03:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
Microsoft doesn't get it

They just don't have the mentality that makes Apple so good at what they do. Apple products are DESIGNED in the most noble, humanistic sense of the word. They are carefully crafted in every way to provide an uncomplicated and satisfying experience. Sony generally has a similar approach with many of the product lines, but they are just too far behind Apple in the portable music sector. I mean, the iPod is a lifestyle element in its own right by now. Meanwhile, Microshaft is just too different culturally from Apple to beat them at their own game.

Also, at the risk of lowering the discourse of this thread, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind the vast meta-entity of Microsoft that it is welcome at any time to drop by and blow me.

lemuel777
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2004

0

08/11, 05:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
No one is getting it

What is really going to keep Apple in the drivers seat is that little port on the bottom of the player. A huge list of Car manufacturers, home stereo makers, home automation systems, etc, are all iPOD compatible, no matter who comes out with a nice competitive iPOD killer. But, it won't kill it because you have to change all these 3rd party compatibility component integration too. Not going to happen anytime soon. Maybe next 5 years or more.

Dale Sorel
Mac Elite

Joined: Aug 2002

0

08/12, 12:36am | report spam | close Reply |
Exactly...

They just don't have the mentality that makes Apple so good at what they do. Apple products are DESIGNED in the most noble, humanistic sense of the word. They are carefully crafted in every way to provide an uncomplicated and satisfying experience.

kitcho1
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2005

0

08/12, 07:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
competition

i work at a retail store in the digital music section. one thing i can tell you is that todays one-dimensional consumers care about one thing: the price. if it costs less while having comparable features, people WILL BUY whatever costs less. look at the exponential growth of wal mart. people only care about saving money and not about quality, brand or anything else that costs them more. if microsoft or anyone else introduces a cheap player clone with similar features, even if its c***, it will sell like crazy. the only thing left to blame is our meaningless consumer society.

S.C.U.B.A.Steve
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2005

0

08/17, 04:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
Ipod

I have mixed feelings about what happened with I-pod and Microsoft....

On one hand, if you have a good product, service, or an idea, no matter who you are, you need to protect it. If you dont protect it, you shouldn't be surprised if someone else takes advantage of you. Such is the case with Apple and their patent hiccup that will end up costing them millions.

On the other hand, with as much market share as Microsoft has, it is disheartening to see the big guy eating the little guy in this case, but then again....you dont get as big as Microsoft by sleeping at the wheel when it comes time to put patents on your products. Im afraid the oweness here lies on Apple.

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Microsoft works with partners to dethrone iPod

updated 07:50 am EDT, Thu August 11, 2005

MS fires warning shot

Okay

Uh-huh

Almost 4 years

What are they going to do

and ...

Funny

Google is a bigger...

Creative has Increased

too many iPods out there

creative Chapt. 11

Innovation Begins At Home

Real competion

re mousketter -

i dont see belkin

if there's any survivor

It has been said over and

What's Microsoft?

A couple of things ...

talk is cheap

wrong choice of words

Microsoft doesn't get it

No one is getting it

Exactly...

competition

Ipod

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Microsoft works with partners to dethrone iPod

updated 07:50 am EDT, Thu August 11, 2005

MS fires warning shot

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Okay

Uh-huh

Almost 4 years

What are they going to do

and ...

Funny

Google is a bigger...

Creative has Increased

too many iPods out there

creative Chapt. 11

Innovation Begins At Home

Real competion

re mousketter -

i dont see belkin

if there's any survivor

It has been said over and

What's Microsoft?

A couple of things ...

talk is cheap

wrong choice of words

Microsoft doesn't get it

No one is getting it

Exactly...

competition

Ipod

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