“A cynic would describe Microsoft’s approach to the music player market as simple Apple envy. The iPod has dominant market share and is helping Apple increase its small share of the PC market. So I’ve got to imagine that many in the inner sanctums of Redmond are hot to introduce a slick phone from Microsoft,” Saul Hansell reports for The New York Times.
“I pressed J Allard on this when I met him earlier this week. Mr. Allard runs Microsoft’s Zune unit and handles some other development for its Entertainment and Devices division, which includes the Windows Mobile phone operating system,” Hansell reports. “Microsoft prefers to work with partners, he said, referring to cellphone makers, but he added that ‘we’ll never say never’ to making a Microsoft phone.”
Hansell reports comments made by J Allard which include:
• People are buying [iPhone] because it’s an Apple phone, not because it’s an iPod. It’s a lousy iPod. You can’t skip a track without looking at it. You can’t go running with the thing.
MacDailyNews Note: We’ve been running with the iPhone since June. Love the lap timer, too!
• Microsoft will add more features from the Zune into Windows Mobile phones.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, phones that squirt!
• We didn’t create the Zune because we were dying to get into the hardware business and take inventory risk. We felt we had to do it… [With Windows], we got to create most of the magic and take none of the financial risk. History isn’t going to repeat that with consumer goods.
MacDailyNews Take: You can say that again (last sentence)! Now, about that “magic,” it’s where, exactly?
Full article here.
It is paradoxical that I, Anonymous, can say wise things as often as I proclaim jackassian nuggets of thought upon MDN.
I, Anonymous, encompass a collective of thought.
Bow!
So… the first month has come around and I have to pay my ATandT iPhone bill. What an eye-opener American Telecoms companies are! Or do I mean dinosaurs? Whatever…
I should note at the outset that I elected to join the $59.99 plan… that was all I needed, right? Right.
My first bill comes to $179.66. Yowsa!! Okaay…!
Here’s the breakdown:
First you’ll pay the current month AND the next month upfront.
$39.99 plus
$39.99
Then: Data charge – $20 plus
$20 for next month
Then:
Activation Fee – $36.00
County Gross Receipts Charge – $3.24
Federal Universal Service Charge – $3.40
MTA Telecom Surcharge – $0.99
State Telecommunication Excise Surcharge – $4.10
oh, yeah, mustn’t forget the:
Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge – $0.86
State Sales Tax – $6.42
City Sales Tax – $7.17
Local Wireless 911 Surcharge – $0.30
New York State Fee – $1.20
Grand Total: $179.66 for a $59.99 plan.
Nice.
“Chairs have a lousy chance in Unky Fester’s office”
Fell out of my chair laughing when I read that!
— dom
If the iPhone is a lousy iPod, what is the Zune?
Microsoft will win! They always do. Just let them get a couple more years away from their justice department fiasco and they’ll implement the same strategy that worked for them before:
OEM
$99 Microsoft Vista
$99 Microsoft Vista + Office
$99 Microsoft Vista + Office + Zune
Zunephone? Why would anyone wanna have a “crap-colored” phone?
Hmm….no Linux or open-source trolls for today. good
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@HueyLong –
County Gross Receipts Charge – $3.24
Federal Universal Service Charge – $3.40
MTA Telecom Surcharge – $0.99
State Telecommunication Excise Surcharge – $4.10
oh, yeah, mustn’t forget the:
Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge – $0.86
State Sales Tax – $6.42
City Sales Tax – $7.17
Local Wireless 911 Surcharge – $0.30
New York State Fee – $1.20
Are all of these items taxes????
Can you give a brief brake down of what they all mean?
All those are taxes–if you have problem with it, vote for politicians that will cut taxes.
MW: “freedom”–as in, too many taxes chipping away at our freedom!
People are buying [Zune] because it’s a Microsoft effort, not because it’s a music player. It’s a lousy music player.
Whoa … steady on cupcake. I can’t vote for your politicians, as I live down under, I was just interested in a brief n’ pithy account of that long list of parasites.
And Windows is a lousy cash register.
You know J Allard, the zune is a lousy ipod ….
But its great that not even MS’s ‘great visionary’ understands what makes a good and sought after product. Long may it continue and lets be honest people with the imagination of your typical IT clone aren’t really going to suddenly become inventive or indeed understand the consumer’s wishes.
Silly twat.
If you want to run get a Shuffle.
I have a zune player (i bought it back when i was a windows only user and was oblivious to how much better apple actually was) and i hate it. Well, i don’t hate it as such, because it is an okay mp3 player, and the video quality is good, and i liked the wide screen. But can you imagine my annoyance when it crashed? Only on Windows.
And not just once either, it’s crashed a couple of times since i’ve had it, the musics stuttered, and it just doesn’t match up to my friends iphone.
I made the very big mistake of assuming that Apple wouldn’t fix the problems i found with the ipod mini in their new products.
As for a Windows phone? Well, they made a zune didn’t they? I’ll bet they’ll make a zune-phone or something with wi-fi technology to boot. The fact that Apple have patented their multi touch flip screen technology has reassured me somewhat. Microsoft won’t have the chance to ruin it.
As for Apple pairing up with Nike, I was really surprised, as (correct me if i’m wrong) i didn’t see Apple to be the type of company who liked working with partners. It was a very smart move by Apple though.
Apples iphone is a better ipod, sure it’s allot of money, but it is literally life in your pocket.
(Oh, and the fact that i can use an ipod on both a PC and a Mac but i can’t use my zune on my imac is really annoying)
Let’s start a campaign to “bring back brown.”
I know a guy with the Zune…he had the runs.
Stop taking bits of the quotes and removing it from context just to stir an argument!
… let’s all welcome the new guy …
To be honest no one on this planet gives a damn about what some overpaid, cynical loser from Microsoft thinks or says about anything.
The people’s opinion who does matter are the people who go into the shops and buy the products.
And those people are voting by buying iPods and iPhones – that is the only thing that counts!
It’s upto Microsoft to make better products than Apple, but unless the company totally changes its culture, attitude to business and customers drestically this will never ever happen.
Microsoft isnt Apple or never will be and likewise Apple isnt Microsoft. They are 2 companies that could not be more different even if they tried.
Consumers are not idiots these days, in the modern world you have tech savy 4 year olds. People know when something is crap, and if it is they dont buy it.
Simple rule of business, if you cant compete with your competition then go into another business direction.
Microsoft may have won the OS war (for what it’s worth), but there is no way they can win the consumer war from Apple. Apple has been building products for the consumer market for over 20 years, its Apples core market.
I feel sorry (NOT) for Microsoft, they just cannot hack the modern business world. They cant compete with Apple, Google, Sony, Nintendo, Nokia et all. They don’t make compelling products of exceptional quality or support the average products they do actually make very well either.
Lets face it, Microsoft with all the legacy baggage is in serious trouble and the future for them is looking pretty bleak.
Even with all their billions of dollars there will be a time when they cannot afford to propup their none selling product lines or less than acceptable OS.
They cannot innovate. They cannot bring products to market fast enough to compete either.
All this adds upto is a company with serious long term problems ahead. It’s a similar situations the human race has with global warming – the inevitable will happen, it’s just a case of when…
oh… and for the record, as a new iPhone owner…
THE IPHONE IS THE BEST MUSIC PLAYER IN THE WORLD!
I love my iPhone!!!
My Iphone has replaced my 40gb iPod.
As soon as I got it on launch day in the UK my wife has been after my old iPod.
Why did I choose an iPhone instead of one of the iPods? Quite simply because I had a 3 year old Sony Ericsson that I could never ever use for email or texting as the screen and the keys were too small. I was also after a new iPod too so it made sense that I got the one device on the market that does both jobs very well.
Since getting my IPhone I have learnt how to text within 2 days (something I could never learn on the Sony phone) and it is the best music player out there too!
The iPhone rocks – fantastic phone and a fantastic music player.
I would recommend it to anyone!!
Having owned both now, I can safely say…
If the iPhone is a terrible iPod, then a Windows Mobile Phone is an even worse Zune.
I love my iPhone as an iPod, because it actually works as an iPod, and a very good one at that (not to say I’ve gotten rid of my iPod, there are times when they are still better, but not many). But seriously, my WM Phone was a joke as a music player, video player, etc. But hey, it kept my contacts nicely!
Unfortunately for CrapAllard, what used to work (Ballardism) was labeling other companies as “niche” players, as putting out “crap” products. Basically trying to minimize other companies whose products are superior to your own.
Two things really mess up Ballardism.
1) When people wake up and become more informed about the other companies and their products. In Apple’s case, the 30% consumer Mac market share that’s growing, the iPod and iTunes store, the iPhone etc..
2) When (1) above occurs in mass quantities, it exposes your company and it’s inferior products at a much faster rate and makes people believe you less and less. For instance, slamming Mac OS X Leopard. Well, in virtually every review I’ve read, Leopard trounces Vista (as it should). Vista has been exposed for what it is. Leopard shines. People even forced Dell to go back to selling Windows XP machines.
Having said all that, when the iPhone/iPod Touch SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) becomes available in February, it will be “lights out” not just for Microsoft, but for most of the cell phone makers out there. Business Apps, Consumer Apps, and games are going to come in the hundreds and thousands.
As soon as main stream gaming companies release NATIVE Mac versions like EA’s Battlefield 3 slated for October next year, the last major floodgate to full consumer adoption will be breached. Look for Apple to make larger and larger strides in the business arena over the next few years. It always follows consumer adoption.
Cheers.
Ampar:
“just testing…”
Obviously, you can attempt to spoof a name. Or, you could try being yourself if it’s not still so incredibly painful. Burlap hoods must itch, huh?
I know it’s heresy to agree with someone from Microsoft, but the guy is not half wrong. It’s a pain scrubbing through audio files (there are at least three ways to change volume levels, but only one barely adequate way to scrub), the control buttons on the bottom seem big enough but I still have to tap them three times before they do anything, and Cover Flow always seems to launch itself whenever I don’t want it to.
But, it’s an iPod that receives phone calls so I still end up using it more than my normal iPods.