“Call it the Axis of E-video. Disney aligned itself with Microsoft yesterday by announcing it would use the software maker’s digital-media format when the studio offers its movies online. The deal brings together Bill Gates and Michael Eisner, two chairman renowned for crushing their competitors. And in this case, their archrival is the same – Steve Jobs,” Stephen Lynch reports for The New York Post.
“Jobs heads both Apple and Pixar, the core of a digital alliance that includes companies such as H-P and AOL. On the other side of this battle: Microsoft and its partners, which include Time Warner, Disney and Wal-Mart,” Lynch reports. “These entanglements may have been a sticking point in the failed negotiations between Disney and Pixar, industry sources said. Jobs may have insisted that Disney not align itself with his longtime nemesis, these sources suggested.”
“…Microsoft may be plotting to unseat Apple by leapfrogging ahead to movies and TV. Microsoft plans to introduce handheld devices later this year that will let users fetch and play movies on the go. If the only way to download Disney movies is on a Microsoft-powered digital player, a consumer might buy music that would play on the same device, said Joe Wilcox, an analyst with Jupiter Research. It might finally give Microsoft a leg up on Apple’s iPod,” Lynch reports.
Full article here.
As long as it runs with WMA there is no chance in hell anyone with a decent set of ears would choose it over an iPOD.
Still, there are plenty of tin ear zombies out there just like there are equally clueless consumers who can’t see the advantages of a Mac, so I am sure the thing will sell, just not enough to take on Apple.
How are people going to have the time to download a movie file, when they are busy updating their virus software, downloading another security patch, running spyware removal programs, answering hundreds of bogus emails, reinstalling drivers and software that are incompatible with the lastest security patch, and reinstalling windows itself, because it becomes so corrupt with all this extra crap?