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Microsoft, Toshiba, DoCoMo, Victor to develop Japan iPod+iTunes killer

Friday, June 2, 2006 · 1:24 pm · 46 Comments

“Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, will ally with Toshiba Corp., Victor Co. of Japan, NTT DoCoMo Inc. and five other companies to offer music and video distribution services and media players to compete against Apple Computer Inc.,” Bloomberg reports.

“The companies will develop a portable music and video player for the Japanese market, according to a Microsoft press release dated yesterday. The device would challenge Apple’s iPod digital music player, the best-selling device that plays songs and other media downloaded from the Internet or copied from compact discs,” Bloomberg reports. “Microsoft will develop the software while consumer electronics makers Toshiba and Victor, will make the portable device.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" and "Sir Ian" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: Yawn. Again? Perhaps the 57th time will be the charm. How many cooks in the kitchen does it take to out bake Apple? (Answer: One. One that can do it all, pays attention to detail and has taste, that is – which is why Microsoft and all of their “partners” together can never bake a sweeter pie than Apple can alone.) Which company is the one common denominator in every failed iPod and iTunes murder? Microsoft, a.k.a. “The Kiss of Death.” Uncle Fester’s minions. Towel lovers. Wouldn’t you think that the Toshibas, the Victors, and the NTT DoCoMos of the world would have figured it out by now? Alas, no. Why not just make a big pile of cash and set it ablaze? At least that would produce something briefly interesting to see for a change. So, okay, whatever, bring it on, “killers.”

[UPDATE: 3:10pm EDT: Changed "cake" to "pie" in Take. Thanks, F.P.]

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Comment Feed

46 Comments

1 2 3 Next »

mike

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 2:51 pm · Reply

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=110405227&s=143441&i=110403279
Schmutz!

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 2:51 pm · Reply

So Microsoft is whoring around to find another “Winner”, you’d think all of the others would get sick of M$ playing the field and make nice with Apple.
Artist

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 2:51 pm · Reply

“Microsoft will develop the software”
Nuff said
LU

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 2:54 pm · Reply

Except for DoCoMo the rest are Bozos! What a waste of PR….
Davidlow

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 2:54 pm · Reply

The deaf are leading the blind to make a music player!
AG Pennypacker

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 2:56 pm · Reply

“Every competing company in the market outside of Apple’s 75% market share to develop iPod + iTunes killer”

go create another wheel somewhere else you loosers.

We like what we have!

Apple does a good job with it – that will not change!

Apple will need to ship a fork in the dock connector to let people know it is done! iFork. You think that is lame? So are all these damn stories about companies dog piling to get a piece of the pie in the sky.

Make something else better, and if it is better we’ll buy it.
Static Mesh

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 2:57 pm · Reply

Microsoft’s and crew favorite song on iTMS

click here
FUDsucker Proxy

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:02 pm · Reply

Don’t you mean “pie” not cake? Mmmmmm apple pie, arrrrr!

MW = easy
as in, easy as pie!
me

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:03 pm · Reply

I will actually be working on this project starting next week.

MDN word “say”: Not much more I can say about it.
G-Spank

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:04 pm · Reply

I love it. It’s gonna be a great Christmas for Apple!
AG Pennypacker

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:05 pm · Reply

Microsoft is like that douche bag we all went to school with that talks big, likes to hear its own name, but noting ever really comes of it.

“Microsoft to create iPod Killer”

“Microsoft to create Origamy”

“Microsoft to create .mpg rival”

“Microsoft get in bed with whomever they can to do whatever they can, but not really end up doing anything.”

Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time.
Gregg Thurman

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:07 pm · Reply

The pro9blem all these late comers are having today is that they are going up against, not just the #1 seller, but a 900lb gorilla. If Apple were to introduce the iPod today, against the myriad of players and services currently competing against the iPod, They would have the same problem.

That problem is ‘standards’. iTunes, and Apple’s FairPlay DRM, are the market standards.

All new efforts are relying on Microsoft’s past ability to establish new standards, where one had already existed. The problem is that Microsoft’s past performance was tied to its ability to bundle standards into its OS. The DOJ took that ability away from them.

Apple’s establilshed standards are cross-platform, and can’t be hindered by anthing Microsoft does to its OS. The DOJ would beat them about the head and shoulders brutally if they attempted that particular gambit.

Nope, to win this war, you are going to have to convince those that haven’t already bought, that the Microsoft standard is superior to iTunes and FairPlay.

Present iPod inertia alone will prevent that from happening anytime in the next few years.
macbones

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:09 pm · Reply

why try? will develop? the real trouble is they didn’t develop it 3 years ago when success was a remote possibility. . .Even if Apple sells half the iPods they expect to the next 4 quarters in a row, their lead will continue to grow due to growth of installed base (and lets face it, some element of pain in the backside negative inertia because of DRM AAC files folks may have). The microsoft alliance product would need to be so absolutely fantastic to make a dent in the iPod (the way OSX will make a dent in WinXP later this year). But harder; remember the iPod is sweet, so hard to compete against. . . XP is a dog, which is really why Apple will make gains.
me

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:12 pm · Reply

I disagree with MDN’s take – Microsoft (more specifically, WMA) is not the problem – it is actually the only thing _right_ about all these solutions – yet iPod and iTunes triump in spite of the advantage.

Be reasonable for a moment – it makes sense that the standard that would interoperate with other devices would dominate (think HTML vs. IE specific HTML or rtf documents vs. MS Word docs) People like “standards” – that’s what made MP3 so great because they were small music files that could be shared by Linux, Windows, and Macs and describe themselves (artist, album, etc).

So it stands to reason that consumers would gladly turn to the WMA “standard” and the “all you can eat” music subscriptions for that matter but the problem is, they can’t do that _and_ have their iTunes and their iPod – and there isn’t a good alternative, so _inspite_ of WMA and subscription option goodness, they stick with iPod and iTunes.

And _that_ is how good Apple is and how compellin giPod and iTunes is.
rant-y

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:18 pm · Reply

One last one . . .

Think about the cultural norm and comerce empire that has been built around the iPod.

Car integration
speaker integration,
about a bazillion piece of crap doodads and trinkets all based upon the i-Frikin’-pod; not the iRiver, or the iLake, or even iOcean. Not the Fake-o “Pimp my pod” garbage – nothing.

It seems insane that these people think they can get into the market. BMW is not all of a sudden say, “Look at that MTV player – that is damn sexy! Boot the iPod, were going with the ‘other’ guy.

Not happening. iPod is a subculture; it is ubiquitous; it is omnipresent; it is not going anywhere!

MS: “I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast!”
Apple” You eat pieces of shit for breakfast? Weird.”
MS” . . . . No! . . . . Shut-up
Judge Bork

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:21 pm · Reply

me,

As MacDailyNews wrote a year and a half ago:

The de facto standard for legal digital online music files: Apple’s protected MPEG-4 Audio (.m4p) – December 15, 2004
The Original Macolyte

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:29 pm · Reply

“One ring to rule them all, one ring to bind them
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”

Guess Monkeyman has to give way to iTunes’s one ring !
shipwithsails

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:30 pm · Reply

I would love to see the numbers for how many downloads are done through iTunes vs how many through all the other services. The day will come when the WMA services start to pickup. The day that iTunes stops gaining on them (it will happen and not just growing) the entire world will claim that iTunes is dead. See it now with Verizon offering its own service, the movie studios offering movies directly themselves, hosts of other services offering all kinds of downloads in all kinds of formats with all kinds of variations in service (buy sell or rent). Apple still only sells three devices (Shuffle, Nano and iPod). But there is an enormous market out there that all are going after. And notice that almost all of them are using M$ software. Call it crappy, that doesn’t matter. Apple may have the lead now while legal download is still new but there is strong competition out there. Apple needs to get all these services using Apple software. Even if that means that they directly compete. In the end that would be good for Apple and good for the consumers.
Bill Gates

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:32 pm · Reply

The problem with the non Apples of the world, and especially Microsoft, is the lack of quality and attention to details like the end users experience.

EVERYTHING from Microsoft is mediocre – it’s “just OK”, and far more complicated than it needs to be. The closest thing Microsoft has made that is a little better than “just OK” is the 360.

Money and numbers are number one to Microsoft and good products is a distant second.

I realize every company is in the business to make money, but it’s weather great products and it’s customers are also very important, with Microsoft those two important ingredients are lacking big time and since it has a legion of blind or naive lemmings giving them billions of dollars, Microsoft has no incentive to ever change.

Wow, how sad, but very true.
Bill Gates

Friday, June 2, 2006 - 3:35 pm · Reply

shipwithsails

Very true, you throw enough shit at the wall and it begins to stick!