“Responding to Hewlett-Packard’s agreement to bundle Apple’s iTunes music store on its computers, a Microsoft official called the move uncompetitive. ‘Windows is about choice – you can mix and match software and music player stuff,’ Dave Fester, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows digital media division, told reporters after last week’s Consumer Electronics Show. ‘We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services,'” Stephen Lynch reports for The New York Post.
“Microsoft, of course, spent years in court claiming its own bundling of products was good for consumers. ‘He said what!?’ said Bob Lande, a senior research scholar at the American Antitrust Institute. ‘Apparently his view of competition is that Microsoft is the only one allowed to offer a product.’ Microsoft, however, argues that its digital media standard is supported by a larger number of online music stores, and that Apple’s system is ‘limited,” Lynch reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The only thing Apple’s iTunes/iPod “system” is “limiting” is Microsoft’s ability to lock customers into its proprietary Windows Media Audio DRM scheme. As Lynch writes in the first line of his article, “Turnabout is not fair play – at least according to Microsoft.” Do we take joy in Microsoft’s hypocritical whining, especially at the hands of Apple as they serve MS a strong dose of their own medicine? Hell, yeah!
First Post!!!
I agree that Apple is making the right moves for now but maybe at some point they should consider allowing other players to license AAC DRM format.
I suppose Microsoft will never go away, but it’s nice to see them in this position for once…
Hearing the fat M$ pig squeal just gives me a warm glow all over!
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Seems like Micro$oftopoly is suffering from Clintonitis. Symptoms of acute Clintonitis would include a strong penchant for selective memory, lack of factual accuracy, a desire to win by any means possible, lack of ethics and a strong delusional tendency to believe that laws and rules apply only to others. This condition, if left unchecked can develop into a full-blown case of Nixonitis, which includes all of the above plus paranoia among other symptoms.
Finally someone with an accurate account of history.
Microsoft is a bunch of bitches.
Look who is talking about fairness………
NoPCZone:
I’d agree with you more – and it’d be way more accurate – if you’d referenced Bush in that analogy. Especially the part about laws…. my god!!!!
All Clinton did was screw an intern and lie about it – Bush has screwed the entire American public, the environment, the United Nations…. and is attempting to screw the whole of the Middle East.
If you’re gonna use a humorous analogy, make it a pertinent one in future.
btw;
Microsoft has been and will no doubt continue to be, a large contributor to Republican fund-raising efforts. No doubt as a thank you for Bush letting them off the hook in the anti-trust actions initiated by Clinton’s administration. Think about that…
STOP IT OR I WILL BANG YOUR HEADS TOGETHER!!!!
Dear Charles
Blah blah blah blah, blah blah, bhah blah blah blah, blah.
Clinton is a saint. Waco and Ruby Ridge never happened under his watch. Neither did WhiteWater. Or Vince Foster. Hell, lets just say he was the greatest American president who doesn’t deserve any criticism and get back to talking Macs.
Bonehead, even Nixon was criticized, so it was a bipartisan slam!
How sad is your life that you have to trumpet the fact that you were the first person to post? Get over it already!
Look seriously people, if you expect anything other than self-interest and hypocrisy from any politicians you are fooling yourselves. It doesn’t matter what your personal politics are, the people you put into office don’t care about you. They just want to look important and line their own pockets. So let’s not go down this road about how much better/worse Bush is than Clinton. It’s like arguing about whether Hitler or Stalin made better scrambled eggs.
I was about to comment on Microsoft’s fear about Apple’s invasion into their kingdom by buddying up to IBM and now HP, but apparently at this point in everyone’s rantings, it appears to be off-topic already.
WEll I heard from my mothers Aunts Grandfathers Sister In-laws daugfhters boyfriend that Stalin made some kick ass scrambled eggs.
To get back to the original story, I was thinking about this last night. And please forgive me (I am an Apple fanatic and I extremely hate Microsoft), but the one thing I keep on thinking about is:
Why does everyone (ANALysts, Microsoft, etc…) believe that AAC/ITMS/IPOD isn’t about choice?
Now I know it’s a huge hypocrisy for MS to talk about choice, but I start thinking about what choices do I have for MP3 players if I use the ITMS. Only 1, the iPod. I also know that Apple really just wants to leverage the ITMS to sell more hardware and I understand that because I have almost 200 songs I bought from ITMS for my iPod…..
But is there some truth to it? About not having a choice?
Just thinking out loud (please, don’t shoot me)…
” ‘He said what!?’ said Bob Lande, a senior research scholar at the American Antitrust Institute. “
hahahahah. best quote in a long long time.
Eighteenth post!!!
hahahaha
to Jayplus….
i don’t agree with people when they say Apple IS giving people a lot of choices when it comes to iTunes Music Store and iPod. But if you really want to use your purchased music in another player, then you can always burn them into CDs and re-import them as WMA or MP3…. Apple’s not giving people choices was a very strategic and competitive move…
But unfair? I don’t think so…. People have a choice from the beginning to choose Apple’s solution or Microsoft…. and it is NOT impossible to shift platforms… it is NOT even hard… Remember, ONLY purchased music are exclusive to iTunes and the iPod… and the remedy for that is extremely easy to do… But the rest of the music in everyone’s iTunes library (mp3s and music imported from CDs) can easily be transferred to other players…. IF these players supported the AAC standards (looks like they will soon… companies like Real even runs apple protected AAC tunes)… Apple isn’t bullying the market and it’s players… they’re just playing extremely well…
i forgot to mention… imported AAC material from audio CDs can easily be converted to MP3, WAV and other formats by one command… it’s that easy…
I think this is a Freudian slip by M$.
What they are conceding here is that actually, iPod/iTMS is the market dominating platform for music delivery. It is the Windows of the online music industry. In effect, a monopoly. Therefore, they argue, it should support all music formats and offer choice.
What they forget is that THEY are the monopoly and there is much choice in the market place, just not on the Apple system.
“maybe at some point they should consider allowing other players to license AAC DRM format.”
It’s not about allowing others to license the DRM, it’s about other player manufacturers seeking to add support for the AAC DRM to their players. I have no doubt that Apple would license the format to any player manufacturer if they wish. It doesn’t change the fact that the iPod is *THE* player to get, so I think it would hardly impact the sales of iPods in the least.
In the end, Apple is the one that will come up smelling like roses. The fact that Microsoft is standing in the corner of the playground stomping their feet shouting “NOT FAIR!” seems to be poetic justice, in my opinion. The funny thing is, I don’t think people are going to fall for MS’s “WMA is a superior audio format” crap this time around. The wallets have spoken, and they say iPod and iTunes Music Store.
Microsoft doesn’t stand a chance when they reveal their store.
~Dak
Microsoft saying things like this worries me. When they start sounding pathetic, they tend to follow up by playing dirty.
– Microsoft doesn’t stand a chance when they reveal their store.
of all the people who have tried, microsoft is the only one WITH a chance to be competitive… IF Apple stands still… but with the HP deal being announced a few days after the announcement of the mini, and how successful iPods and ITMS were during the whole of 2003, looks like Apple has so much up its sleeves for this year….