“Software giant Microsoft is casting its sights on the digital media marketplace by positioning itself as pro-consumer-choice. The company unveiled its MSN Music Service and its PlaysForSure logo, which indicates interoperability among portable devices, digital music stores and PCs that run Windows Media software,” Scott Banerjee reports for Billboard.
“‘Obviously, the digital music scenario is exploding,’ said Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman/chief software architect at Microsoft’s Digital Entertainment Anywhere launch event Oct. 12 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. ‘Once you’ve picked the music stores you like,’ Gates said, ‘that should in no way constrain the devices the music works with,'” Banerjee reports. “‘We want to give you choice, but we want you to know exactly how that ecosystem fits together,’ Gates said of the PlaysForSure logo. ‘And so you don’t have to think about file formats or conversion, you know that all the richness of the experience will carry across to those devices.'”
Banerjee reports, “‘PlaysForSure is a good way of sorting through the confusion, but there is still a lot of work that consumers need to go through,’ Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research said. ‘It’s not likely consumers are going to go to a music store, look for a particular logo and then go buy a player with that logo on it … By contrast, Apple has a much simpler message; it’s about the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, and by the way, did we mention that iPod?'”
“Apple Computer recently reported that slightly more than 2 million iPods shipped for its fiscal fourth quarter, with iPod revenue for the third quarter totaling $537 million. Revenue from the iTunes Music Store and related iPod services and accessories totaled $98 million,” Banerjee reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How nice of Microsoft and its partners to clearly identify devices, PCs and music services that won’t work well or at all with Apple’s market-dominating iTunes Music Store (70% of legal online music downloads) and even-more-dominating iPod and iPod mini (92.1% of hard drive-based music players). This’ll make it easier for consumers to avoid making expensive mistakes. They should’ve just called it “Don’tBuyThis.”
WMA=WipeMicrosoftsAss
The PlaysForSure-logo should really be stopped, it just isn’t true. 90% of players is iPods.
PlaysOn1of10 is true. Why doesn’t Microsoft use that instead?
…yeah, i meant harddisk-based players. All players leaves Apple with 70% of the market. Still impressive, and still the safest choice for Microsoft is using the logo PlaysOn1of10 on these crappy players.
My take on PlaysForSure can be found here:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/f/m/fmpgeek/
what a stupid slogan
hey man, it plays for sure, awesome!
plays for sure… on 8% of HD-based players..
YAHOOOO!
WMA standard here we come (/sarc)
If I were a manufacturer of any sort of hardware music device that is WIndows compatible, there is NO WAY I’d put anything on my devices’ box that states “Plays For Sure”. This totally screams for lawsuits and a flood of consumer complaints.
By the way, “otto”, Steve Jobs has stated over and over again that money and empire building are NOT his primary goals; it is making a profit for their investors and shareholders, and to build innovative products. He has stated quite clearly that he is very content with his BMW-sized portion of the computer market. No big empire dreams at Apple, simply producing excellent products that in turn creates enough revenue for more advanced research and a bit more to thank their investors.
As it has been said before, a company is in trouble as soon as the sales department takes over corporate decision-making. This is the most obvious difference between Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft pushes $ale$ and Apple pushes design, ease-of-use, and innovation. Because of this, Apple may never top MS’s bank account, but that is fine. I am quite sure the Apple staff sleeps much better at night knowing their products bring more smiles to their users… a much better result than a pile of cash.
John (jecrawford) said
“Apple uses AAC, an open standard; Microsoft uses its own proprietary encoding (WMA?); both Apple & Microsoft use proprietary DRMs � at the moment.”
“You would have to get the key players (Apple, MicroSoft & Real) to agree an industry standard for the DRMs. That’s a commercial battle which will play out in this arena.”
“…Apple deserves to capitalise on its iPod success”
EXACTLY!
The more people that would realize that the file format thing is a money making endvevor for M$, the better. The DRM schemes are ALL proprietary. I believe Apple keeps it shut to keep the user experience and compatibility with the iPod a good experience and maintain compatibility.
IMHO
Jb
Any time that you buy a Micro$oft product, especially a WMA compatible one, you should receive an “L” sticker that can be affixed to your forehead.
GrapeGraphics wrote: I believe Apple keeps it shut to keep the user experience and compatibility with the iPod a good experience and maintain compatibility.
You can believe all you want. The real motive is to make as much money as possible.
Hit hard and fast, blitz the market and get as entrenched as possible. iPod & iTunes are so tightly wound that to preserve the lead Apple has built for as long as possible.
If Apple were truly in it for the user experience, they would’ve opened up their DRM to developers by now.
Apple, thy god is $$$.
GrapeGraphics wrote: I believe Apple keeps it shut to keep the user experience and compatibility with the iPod a good experience and maintain compatibility.
You can believe all you want. The real motive is to make as much money as possible.
Hit hard and fast, blitz the market and get as entrenched as possible. iPod & iTunes are so tightly wound that to preserve the lead Apple has built for as long as possible.
If Apple were truly in it for the user experience, they would’ve opened up their DRM to developers by now.
Apple, thy god is $$$.
the problem with u mac users are that ur sad – unlike the community from Macumors or MacNN, you guys are low.
You create stupid parodies about Microsoft stuff and then moan and groan when someone says something about the Mac that you find too low for your standards.
Microsoft, although u guys are too blind to see it, is already beating apple in the “digital hub”. They have the MCE of XP which can do almost everything and more, compared to iLife. Of course, with the nice Apple touch – but consumers don’t care. They see the Media centers and they are going to want to buy that instead of a Mac. This is not the case of the iPod, where its known to be cool to have an iPod. And the sad fact is that many of these media centers are not much more expensive than the Imacs.
Your can bitch about viruses and spyware all you like, but the sad fact remains – apple isn’t going anything with iLife like this right now.
I want apple do something something like the Media centers, but I agree wtih SJ and say that watching TV on the computer is stupid. So something of an iLife extender into the lounge.
Why doesn’t apple just open aac up now that iPod is iconic and commands a 82% marketshare. That would send MS running.
oh btw, don’t ever complain about PC users say “Macs suck”. you guys are just as worse to the PC world. cept they got 97% more people.
there are more good mac communitys out there and u guys are not one of them
You nailed it MDN, because that is EXACTLY what their stupid logo means…
M$ “PlaysForSure” logo = Incompatible with market dominating Apple iPod & iTunes Music Store
SJ and Apple are quite smart. I’m certain they already know how to incorporate a subscription model into iTunes/iPod, how to add outside download stores to iTunes and/or how to add support for other MP3 players to iTunes. At this point it is not wise to do any of those – but the option is probably ready when it makes sense to do so.
What I want to know is will PC makers have the ‘choice’ to use the Plays For Sure logo or will they be required? Will HP be required to put the Plays for Sure logo on their packaging even though they ship with iTunes? Maybe Apple & HP will come up with a combined iTunes/iPod logo to put on HP packaging. That would certainly trump any Plays for Sure logo.
Oh yeah, MDN keep bashing MS!
Looks like MS has the formula backward.
Seems to me people buy the player first, for convenience, usability, price, or whatever, then use the online music store that works with the player.
In the MS mode, people prefer an online music store first, then seek out a player that works with a store.
Unfortunately for them, under both of these scenarios, people are finding out that Apple’s offerings are the better choice.
mac_user, if you don’t like MDN, or you don’t like the comments on this site, then don’t come here. It’s your choice. But some of us like coming here and reading the comments, so don’t bash MDN or the MDN community for doing what they like to do. Nobody is forcing you to read anything.
Why is this “either/or” arguing going on all the time? Frankly, who cares whether Microsft or Apple dominates the number of sales, as long as Apple continues to offer it’s service to those who want it? Apple is the small business of big business– it’ll survive and be profitable as long as what it does is recognized by others. Or, in the long run, people may just wake up and Apple will dominate– but again, who cares as long as it remains excellent in what it does?
Let each to his own… if Microsoft offers something many people want (be it through ignorance or just a difference of opinion), so be it.
Jeez.
It seems to me like MS is targeting an audience of teenage girls from the 1980’s – Fer Sure! Like Totally Cubular!
http://www.80smusiclyrics.com/artists/frankzappa.htm
Plays for Sure disclaimer: Only when your computer will boot, only when your computer is virus/spyware free (like that would ever happen), only if you promise to sign your kids over to the Microsoft Corporation, only if you plan to spend 5 hours fixing it, and so on and so forth.
“From WordNet (r) 2.0:
newspeak
n : deliberately ambiguous and contradictiory language use to
mislead and manipulate the public; “the welfare state
brought its own newspeak””
Example
Plays For Sure
oxymoron
n : conjoining contradictory terms (as in `deafening silence’)
[also: oxymora (pl)]
Microsoft Consumer Choice
“From WordNet (r) 2.0:
non sequitur
n 1: a reply that has no relevance to what preceded it
2: (logic) a conclusion that does not follow from the premises”
Ex
Microsoft Pro Consumer
What if Apple created a logo which sez…
“It just Works” …. or “Plays Without Malware” .. or .. “WMA is a Joke”…
Micro$oftopoly is pushing toward a time when DRM is attached to all digital files from a simple text document though photographs to music and video. Of course the DRM will be licensed from Micro$oftopoly, the largest extension of the “Microsoft Tax” the world has ever seen. They can sit back and rake in the money while doing nothing to earn it, again using monopoly/cartel to deny the consumer choice while lining their pockets with your money.
This is Gates & Ballmer’s wet dream, to be able and sit back and rake in tons of your money in exchange for a technology you do not want. The now-mythical Longhorn OS will require you to apply Janus DRM to all of your documents, making Janus a requirement for interoperability with Windows. The next version of Office:Mac will doubtless have Janus embedded in it.
GO AHEAD- DRINK THE KOOL-AID, it’s from Micro$oftopoly the home of “Trustworthy Computing” and “Plays for Sure”. You know Bill Gates- the guy who invented the modern PC and introduced the world to the GUI and mouse. You know Steve Ballmer- CEO of the company that pioneered the legal online purchase of music and digital multimedia on the home PC.
This isn’t about music alone people, this is just the latest front in the monopolistic extension of M$ into everything.
Even if MS allows different players you still have to use WMP to get the music and organize it. I have no interest in going back to MS after all the headaches theyve caused me. MSN messenger mac sucks soo much! Office 2004 is ok, but that service pack screwed the pooch bad. Thank God there are other programs that can access MSN network so I dont have to use MS messenger