“As we await the debut of the MSN Music store this week, I’m amused by the mental hoops the tech press jumps through to manufacture a genuine possibility that Microsoft could lose the music wars,” Brian
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Windows users always find creative ways to get OS’s, productivity software, games, movies and music very cheaply or free as in beer. The vast majority do not want to pay full price or rent by the month a crappy WMA copy, especially a DRMed copy.
OMG I saw a preview of microsoft’s music store and it is HOT. similar to itunes, but different. jury’s up on who will win in the long-run, but MS really took time and care with this one.
apple still has the ipod though
When will the media learn the hard lesson that millions upon millions of Windows users now know: Windows in any version is a buggy, unstable and vulnerable data disaster waiting to happen. Windows is a liability.
No person in their right mind would use Windows once they have experienced the Mac.
The tide is turning…. my company is NOW WINDOWS FREE!
All Macs…. no downtime, no headaches. They just work.
More people to buy doesn’t mean that they will. How much music will Microsoft have to offer and how much? From what I heard it will be the same price so big freaking deal. Also who wants to download infected music files that would crash there PC’s. We all know that they will not have anything for Macs either so they lose that business as well. Just like Real they also don’t have the software that will make it easy to use like iTunes which supports both platforms exactly the same. Real nor Microsoft will ever support both platforms. Funny, I thought Real was all about choice but I guess not. Microsoft will be the same and there digital rights will be like a hangmans noose as tight as it gets. I’ll stick with iTunes thank you very much. And I bet not even Microsoft will break iTunes hold on the music market.
people buy computers, often enough, based on what they use at work. they almost don’t have a choice sometimes. people buy music and music players based on what they personally like. they do have a choice. windows users are not as stupid or gullible as this writer would make them out to be.
The real question is how much money is MS willing to spend/lose in promoting their “Plays for Sure” music platform? Generally speaking advertising dollars can go a long way to selling mediocrity but Apple does have a huge lead. Could Bill Gates go insane spending his last dime trying to get uninterested music lover’s to come to his digital music party? Stay tuned…
The odd and sad thing is that Microsoft makes moves like introducing a music store for recognition only. Apple, who has been #1 in the online music sales business since it became a business, openly admits that the profits made from iTMS are inconsequential. It just gives the majority one more large reason to choose the iPod over its rivals (I prefer bleep, thank you very much).
However, opening another money-hemorrhaging wound won’t affect Microsoft. After all, they are surviving the XBOX quite well. This music store battle isn’t a matter of money; it is matter of pride. Microsoft just hates being second. Even with an insurmountable market share of desktop OSes, they still resent and admire Apple’s success. By M$’s equations, Apple should have collapsed long ago. But just like the Japanese economic model, it somehow works.
Microsoft doesn’t want the money. They just want to have the superior product for once. Though they may never make it, they certainly have the money to try over and over again.
ZDnet and others will learn, that when it comes to Music, “Good enough” is never good enough.
Good Enough doesn’t keep planes in the air or ships afloat on the seas.
Good enough doesn’t keep buildings standing, nor does it make streets last.
Good enough doesn’t get you high honors and respect.
Good enough will not let them succeed in the online music wars.
Apple has learned throughout their years that in order to be right, they can’t be simple “Good Enough”, they had to be better. The best. And they are. The Music store reflects this belief. They never, EVER settle for “good enough”. They don’t go for “Just Right”, and make it just about every time. Microsoft has always settled for “Good Enough”. Why go for Perfect, when you have so many ignorant people out there willing to shell out cash for something they don’t understand to begin with. Well, People understand music. It’s a universal language. And when people see the mediocre way that Microsoft will handle this, they will know that they’ve been shortchanged, and will not buy from Microsoft’s store. Odds are Microsoft will at best get a small share of the pie, but I don’t see Apple losing much of anything to the Monopolysoft company.
that should read “They go for “Just Right”….” sorry.
What the writer fails to consider is the momumental cool factor still attached to the iPod, iPod mini, and iTunes. These things don’t require as much money to advertise because the consumers, and the product, do most of the advertising for them.
Microsoft is going to have to fight much harder than normal to try and establish itself as cool.
Rageous…
Microsoft…. cool?
Never!
What a joke. Microsoft hasn’t even released it yet and they are deemed to be successful? I highly doubt it. They are the last to enter the race, there aren’t many switchers in this kind of field (you choose one source and stick with it) or people who have yet to find an online downloading source. This will be another Microsoft failure on every level and will bug up their mentally handicaped operating system with however they try and integrate it through their msn networks.
Pathetic on every level. Can’t wait for a laugh.
What worked for Ronald Regan was that the US was capable of innovating with its defense dollars. The Soviets broke the bank trying to keep up. Apple will never have to keep up with M$. They can spend all the money they have and never leave Apple behind because they CANNOT innovate. Period.
Moo.
Microsoft’s mice are at least a 3.0. Word is a mess, but it’s the best mess out there period–it should get a 3.0 just because snotty know-it-alls that deride it fail to do any better. Visio is easily a 3.0. The invention of the scroller-wheel, at least a 3.0 for them. The xbox, at least a 3.0 and in my opinion a 3.33. And the xbox is a great lesson. Microsoft went in, and just is outspending sony to the point where now it’s outselling the playstation in the US.
True, their flagship product, windows xp, blows and is not a 3.0 product. It’s barely a 1.5. That being said, I would put OS X at only a 2.33. C+. The iPod/mini at 3.33 B+.
The voice of reason here. I’m not a troll btw, I’ve fallen out with family defending the mac.
Microshaft WILL win the online music war. They’ll advertise it, force it on people, buy their competitors, screw their suppliers, give away songs by the hundred and claim they invented online music stores.
If Real have got away with hacking Fairplay why won’t M$ do the same? Also their media player will suck but the grovelling media will love it, and guess what �it’ll be a hit.
I was surprised to hear Phil in Paris say that we’ve now sold 4 million iPods worldwide. Is that a lot?
The writer fails to recognize that Apple has made its iTunes software available for Windows users. They don’t need to switch over to an Apple computer (Though it would be recommended). When it comes to music, I don’t want something that works and sound just ok. I want it to look and sound INCREDIBLE! To me, that’s what apple has offered.
Ade: you do not get it. M$ is launching a STORE. Repeat after me: S – T – O – R – E.
To sell a lot you have to have lots of people having a player compatible with THAT store. Now, what do people have and want? iPods.
The store does not sell players, it is the player that *sells* the store. M$ can advertise as much as they like and they have to convince people that the iPod is not cool, not trendy, not worth to have it BECAUSE YOU CAN’T USE IT WITH THEIR STORE?
Get real. Real have not attracted buyers even with the promotion of tracks at 49 cents. Why? BECAUSE MOST BUYERS HAVE iPODs.
It’s the player, not the store.
WHEN the iPod will not be THE HOT THING, then another store supporting the OTHER new hot player will be the one attracting more buyers because those will have the OTHER player.
Till that day, the #1 store will be iTMS. Why? Because it is the one store – in addition to store selling MP3s like the Russian one – supporting the #1 player on the market: the iPod.
Also, do not forget that HP users will have iTMS pre-installed, sponsored by HP, and buy an iPod WITH their HP PC.
Numbers are on the wall already and it is a wall without Windows.
What most Mac users don’t understand is that free downloads has the biggest ‘market share’ by far. Physical CD’s are second. Apple’s store is at 1% at best. No one will ever make big money selling music online. Recording from FM broadcast, cable cast or internet radio is better than paying. Free is the right price for most Windows users. Talk to a few.
Where do these guys come from? When will they learn that 2004 is NOT 1984. Apple did NOT dominate PCs back then (maybe “buzz” factor), IBM and Microsoft did. Today, the Mac line is prospering and the iPod/iTunes/iTMS dominate the online and portable player music world.
Still, anal-lysts believe Microsoft can just walk in and take over.
They didn’t do it with Xbox, they won’t do it with iPod users either. The MS Music Store needs 19-cent songs to get people to try something other than iTunes and iTMS. Probably 10-cents songs to get people to pry their hands off the iPods.
Hmmm. Microsoft can afford that, can’t they?
To me, the bottom line is that once people start realizing how crappy ALL downloaded music really sounds, NO ONE will be buying from downloadable source if they have to pay for it. I know I’ll never download a full album again. I’ve been burnt too many times where I find I’m so dissatisfied with the sound quality on my home stereo from a burned CD that I end up and buying the album again in the physical form.
Maybe I’m wrong and to most, “the sound is good enough” (to apply the theory a poster above used). I just know that to me it isn’t, just like XP isn’t “good enough”.
AI: iTMS has made $74M profit (not volume) for Apple in 3Q 2004. Enough money for you?
And I said iTMS, not sales from iPod.
The many windows boxes in offices, POS, and as controllers for phone systems are not going to be purchasing music from anyone, including iTMS. These are the vast majority of windows boxes.
Leaving only the consumer windows boxes likely to purchase music we must give some validity to the “good enough” theory. However, this is usually combined with “cheaper.” People are ripping their CDs and purchasing tunes online before owning any sort of MP3 player.
The Wal-Mart store is proof the windows masses aren’t going to be taken in by a slightly cheaper price. MS would have to make a superior product/experience to Apple’s iTunes/iPod combo in order to unseat Apple.
In reply to Bobberty Jones
“OMG I saw a preview of microsoft’s music store and it is HOT. similar to itunes, but different. jury’s up on who will win in the long-run, but MS really took time and care with this one.”
1- As always, MS is entering into a market where they’ve already had a chance to see what everyone other company is offering and what has been well received, but that doesn’t mean that they spent “time and care” on their offering. It only shows their lack of forward thinking ideas, implementation and execution.
2- I think this has more to do with MS fearing iTunes as it did with Netscape and Sun back in the 90’s when the possibility was very high that the Netscape browser could become a competing platform that would become OS independent (via use of Java) and make Windows developers question their need for developing for the Windows platform. Remember “Monkey Boy’s”
mad man chant of “Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers”? If not, go here:
http://www.ntk.net/ballmer/mirrors.html
The success of iTunes almost mirrors the success of the Navigator Internet browser by Netscape in which Apple has been able to build a successful platform with the iPod and the services and experience offered via iTunes (music sales, video delivery, use of Quicktime software, RSS feeds, community building with iMix, brand awareness/exposure and brand loyalty for those who are new to or veterans of Apple products ).
MS flipped-flopped in their comments of entering into the digital music race, originally stating that they saw no need to compete with their developers. Well now, since no competing service has been able to match the service offerings, ideas, software integration and brand awareness/marketing that Apple has been able to do in such a short period time, Windows may be entering into this race simply to lend a helping hand via use of its brand awareness and having the “Microsoft” stamp of approval. Whether or not they will continue to follow through on their business commitment to this revenue stream remains to be seen, but with MS’ track record of dropping the ball on features, missing target dates, releasing products that felt more like 3 versions behind whatever the current version number was, I would offer a very lukewarm welcome to product/service being introduced by MS.
I would also wonder how long will it take for a competing Windows OS online music service that caters to file suit against MS.
Anyone seen the MSN music store yet…isn’t it supposed to open or be previewed today?
Every single time someone else has announced an online store, the press goes nuts and either declares it serious competition to or the killer of iTunesMS. And look where they all are now.
What they fail to realize is that iTunes, iTunesMS, and the iPod are a music “platform” not just a store. Look at all the iPod accessories. Are there any for the DellDJ?