“In a bid to capture the huge audience for handheld entertainment gadgets, Microsoft is designing a product that combines video games, music and video in one handheld device, according to sources familiar with the project,” Dean Takahashi reports for The Mercury News. “The Microsoft product would compete with Sony, Nintendo and Apple Computer’s products, including the iPod. And Microsoft has some of its most seasoned talent from the division that created its popular Xbox 360 working on it. Game executive J Allard leads the project, and its director is Greg Gibson, who was the system designer on the Xbox 360 video game console. Bryan Lee, the finance chief on the Xbox business, is leading the business side of the project.”
“By anchoring its entertainment device as a handheld game player, Microsoft is starting from its position of strength in the entertainment business that it hopes Apple cannot match, even with its iPod. The game press has dubbed it an ‘iPod killer,’ but its functions would likely more closely resemble Sony’s PlayStation Portable multimedia gaming device,” Takahashi reports. “Meanwhile, Microsoft’s efforts in PocketPC handhelds and Portable Media Players have fallen short in competition with the iPod. Last week, Microsoft unveiled Project Origami, a handheld Windows computer. But that device isn’t targeted on pure entertainment as the Xplayer is. The existence of these other projects suggests that there is still some infighting within Microsoft about its best approach to portable gadgets. The handheld project is still in its early stages. Microsoft is still figuring out which strategy to pursue in music technology, according to sources familiar with the matter. The code name for its music service, which would be the equivalent of Apple’s iTunes, is ‘Alexandria.'”
“It could be 2007 before the device hits store shelves. That gives rivals such as Sony, Nintendo and Apple considerable time to consolidate their position and come up with their own new gadgets in the meantime,” Takahashi reports.
More details in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The number of iPod and iTunes “killers” currently sitting on death row is uncountable. All of them are tied to Microsoft in some way or another. The only true “iPod killer” and “iTunes killer” is Apple. We heartily encourage Microsoft to keep throwing their money away on a market they’ve already lost long ago.
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Microsoft says it is going to do everything. Search engine, iPod killer, video game system, Media center, I think they even have a Windows XP powered toliet planned. I think the only thing they have done right was the Xbox.
All you need to know about this is summed up in this short sentence excerpt:
“….Microsoft is designing a product …”
I guess those iPod Hi-Fi speakers introduced were “Bose Killers” and “BoomBox Killers”, right?
As Apple knows 2% of a market (computers) can be very profitable.
—-
MDN comment: “The only true “iPod killer” and “iTunes killer” is Apple.”
Gee…how long did you have to twist your brain power up to think up those words of nonsense?
I’m planning an iTunes and iPod killer as well.
“”It could be 2007 before the device hits store shelves.”
Which, in MVT (Microsoft Vista Time), would actually be the year 2012. It’s the same year that OS X 11.0 Tabby, the tamest OS of all-time, will hit store shelves.
How is this different from Origami?
Nolan,
Business 101…get your facts straight.
Macs have a larger share of the global computer market than 2%.
In the US they are at 4.3%
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/10/17.16.shtml
and a 4.5% share globally (and growing rapidly)
http://www.architosh.com/news/2005-07/2005c-0719_appleback-aec1.html
There is no way that a niche product like the Hi-Fi will function as a business driver in the same way as the iPod or a full computer do.
It’s not that the hi-fi is a killer of anything but rather another choice (good or bad) for an ADDITIONAL amplification system. They are likely quite inexpensive to build and offer Apple another revenue stream with minimal risk. Smart business.
The MDN Take is based on the rather remarkable fact that Apple KILLED the most successful mp3 player in the world in the mini iPod to replace it with the iPod Nano. In other words, they are the masters of their own fate in
the marketplace, unlike so many competitors.
From what I have notice from a long time of reading the san jose mecrury news, they always seem to look down upon Apple. Come on cheer for someone in your own backyard for once.
Look at that article, its like a hype machine. Everyline is with a !!!!!!. You know whats funny about MS is they want to put all those other things in a portable device, but that will only get techies to buy it, not the masses. I don’t think kids, women and older people would even want all those features in a music player. They just want something simple.
it’ll cost too much and nobody will buy it, this is what they dont understand
Whth the backing of Microsnot’s marketing team, their software progrrammers are going to re-release Pong but in color! That will be an iPod killer. You just watch heheheheheh!
Scheduled for release at the same time as PS3 to counter’s Sony’s attempt at producing an XBox killer.
Geez, Microsoft, why stop there? Why not take on Nokia, Norelco, Texas Instruments, and Bernz-O-Matic while you’re at it? I’m sure there a huge market for a combination handheld game machine, movie player, music player, cell phone, razor, scientific calculator, and propane torch! That Microsoft, always thinking small.
“And Microsoft has some of its most seasoned talent from the division that created its popular Xbox 360 working on it.”
You meen the same Xbox 360 that’s at best an update to the previous generation Xbox, that no one cares about while waiting for the PS3 and Nintendo Revolution. Wow! I’m impressed, I can’t wait!
and it will have wheels to make it portable..
The biggest barrior to this plan is that it screws all the other manufacturers of iPod-like devices that are on-board with MS DRM and media deployment.
MS had a win with the X-Box because it had the segment to itself, but when they deploy a media player that shafts Creative Labs, SanDisk, SamSung and others there will be massive hard feelings and a possible backlash that would not be worth it to MS.
MS could launch a trojan media handheld disguised as an X-Box handheld to compete with the PSP and then endow it over time with additional iPod-like capabilities. This would again shaft the other media player manufacturers and ultimately cause weakening support for MS media technology and slow down adoption of MS DRM.
That’s the problem with being everything to everybody, everywhere you turn your burning a supporter.
Apples proprietary approach has its own problems but with the iPod they’ve got the whole game to themselves. Now if Apple would endow a forthcoming large screen handheld with gaming capability and garner support from content authors it’s hard to say how big Apple could become.
One thing is for sure, MS will have a damned hard time coming to market with a well thought out device before 2010.
The beauty of the iPod is its simplicity. I don’t need something that does everything but clean my house (I could use something to clean my house, but that’s another story…). Most of the time, I just want to listen to music, or maybe catch a video or two (or more when I’m stuck waiting at the doctor’s office); if I want to play a video game, I’ll stick my Nintendo DS in my daypack.
The iPod appeals especially to the commuter — I see tons of them on transit around here. How many of those folks are really going to be interested in a game player? (With the advent of the Multi-Pass, it’s not too far fetched to imagine short newsmagazine-style programs available for morning download; maybe ABC would even supply Nightline for folks to view the next morning on the train, but that’s a bit off-topic.) Plus, the success of the product is dependent on the media available; I’ve resisted getting a PSP mainly because I haven’t really seen any games that I’m interested in playing, and when I’m on the go I don’t really have time to watch a full-length movie (barely have time to get through some of the TV shows on the iPod Video). I haven’t bought a game console since the old SNES — haven’t really seen any games worth investing in a console for.
Once again, Micro$oft can’t come up with their own ideas, so they have to cobble together the best of the iPod along with a bit of PSP, and it’s going to be a disaster…far from killing the iPod, it’s going to showcase the iPod’s simplicity and ease of use. (Though the iPod could stand some improvement, like an easier way to scroll through a huge song/video list…)
I hear, MS will also bring out a vacuum cleaner to break the strangehold of Hoover over consumers. But alas, unlike all other MS products, it doesn’t suck.
No one should underestimate MS. They’ve proven on more than one occasion that they can take the market. Remember Netscape, Wordperfect, Lotus 123, Nintendo…
And unlike Creative and many other smaller players, they can throw money at this ti’ll the cows come home.
How is this different from most other MDN “news” stories?
“It could be 2007 before the device hits store shelves. That gives rivals such as Sony, Nintendo and Apple considerable time to consolidate their position and come up with their own new gadgets in the meantime,” Takahashi reports.
ANY new player will have to make a quantum leap in design, functionality or ease of use, to have any impact on Apple’s iPod.
A product that won’t be available until sometime in 2007 will have to exceed not only current iPod specs, but the specs of iPods not yet announced.
Since introducing the iPod, Apple has consistently raised the performance bar of music players, even going so far as killing its best seller (iPod mini) long before its time.
Then there is the issue of third party accessories. It would take a huge surge in sales from a new player to attract a tiny portion of the manufacturers for iPod accessories.
Apple can’t rest on its laurels, but they don’t have to do much more than that to maintain their enormous lead in this market. Now consider that Apple is aggressively raising the competition bar.
I am not blind to what a behemoth like MSFT could do, should they get it right, but I am not concerned at this time. MSFT has to many competing interests within, to focus the energy necessary to take on iPod in a serious manner.
All these iPod doomsday reports fail to acknowledge that the iPod, while it may be marketed to a younger demographic, is used by every demographic because it’s a music/video player and does that well. When these fools throw in a video game player, thinking it’ll kill the ipod, they shoot themselves in the foot because video game players narrowling focus on a specific demographic. Most people who want a music player will stick with the ipod without the need to pay extra for a video game player that they don’t need.
Good luck with that MicroShaft!
the ipod music type market is maturing.
you know anybody that doesn´t have one?
plus u gotta´ have a computer, high speed internet connect and credit card to buy music for it.
There are several companies out there that have true iPod killers. They are GE and Maytag. The killer is called the washing machine. Run your iPod through one of those babies and it’s dead (although, there have been reports to the contrary). I think that they should put out a report on their iPod killers because their claims could actually been seen as a representation of facts. My GE washing machine at home killed one of the shuffles in the house. It was a sad day. Please make charitable donations in lieu of flowers.
Still lots of people who don’t own a MP3-player – in Asia to be precise.
iPod presence is still extremely low there.
Microsoft might conquer the world through this backdoor.
At least, if they have the Xbox-people design the player and the software.
Which they probably don’t.
In what way is the XBox a success?
PlayStation outsells it 3:1, and as far as we can tell, MS loses money on every one it sells. Not very many people are going to need to buy an awful lot of games to make that turkey fly.
And, as pointed out earlier by Macs King, I am sure the Samsung, Creative, iRiver, et al feel very good about this new product. Very good, indeed.
The Microsoft product would compete with Sony, Nintendo and Apple Computer’s products
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Good luck! M$ has showed on so multiple occations that it can not compete without resorting to unfair means. I guess anything that’s bad for M$ is good for us though
Bring it on!
why is it so important to these also-rans to “kill” the iPod? why do all these “me too” companies seem to think that they are, in any way, entitled to any market share of anything Apple introduces? i’m so sick of everything remotely related to those di¢ks from redmond.
It sounds like it is competing with the PSP not the iPod. But that headline wouldn’t sell as many papers or generate as many hits.
“It could be 2007 before the device hits store shelves.”
Can you imagine what the iPod (or PSP) will look like by then?
I’m planning to release a killer that kills killers.
And MacDude.
Where do I register it?
“The code name for its music service, which would be the equivalent of Apple’s iTunes, is ‘Alexandria.'”
Wait, I thought MS was developing a music service called URGE with MTV. Are they announcing that they are going to come up with a service that will compete with another service that they haven’t even launched yet? They really need to change their name to Vaporsoft.
My only two questions:
1. How much of a loss will MS have to price it at to sell?
2. How long will they have to sell at a loss to kill the competition?
Face facts, Microsoft is the Ronco of the tech world.
Origami on steroids.
And since the device will be designed by Microsoft to everything, expect it to do nothing.
Makes sense, someone else invents it, MS makes a mediocre copy of it, throws a 1 billion dollar add campaign behind it, anf steals the show.
I’ll be optomistic and say that, this time around the consuming public has had a taste of the good stuff for quite a while now, and whatever MS comes up with is going to have to be ACTUALLY, and IN REALITY, better. Otherwise conusmers are very likely to blow off any MS offerings that pale in comparison to Apple’s.
Someday this will be true of the pc market as well.
If you can’t stick it into your shirt pocket, it can’t even be considered an “iPod Killer”… end of story.
This is a PSP “killer” and nothing more.
ha, microsoft is designing an ipod killer. i eagerly await to see this in action. what do you bet it will have an innovative new “click wheel”?
The bottom line:
Microsoft will… Microsoft will…
…fail with .Net …fail with Live …fail on Plays for Sure
Little chance that anyone will get excited by ‘Microsoft will create iPod killer’
Eric,
“I think the only thing they have done right was the Xbox.”
Isn’t the Xbox a money loser for Microsoft, i.e. selling bellow cost? I recall reading somewhere that they’re goal is to plant hard drives in everyone’s living room as a springboard to Home Entertainment Hub nirvanna. So they’re sacrificing current profits for future market domination in an adjacent market.
Doea anyone here remember the source of that report? It was an analysis of Xbox unit costing I think.
again wouldnt say an ipod killer, just a competition to psp.
Is anyone else tired of Microsoft announcing products that are more than a year away from store shelves?
Do you know why it rains so much in Seattle? It’s all the vapor that rises from Redmond.
Gates’ upcoming announcement for this groundbreaking technology will have to include the following paradigm shifting innovations:
1. Transparent album cover art
2. An option to play music backwards to screen for Satanic messages
3. A “secure” credit card account system for game and music purchases
4. Allowances and gift certificates (Melinda’s idea)
5. A PlaysForSure start-up chime in Dolby 5.1 engineered by a staff of over 300 during the last three years.
6. Tetris
7. A vibrating joystick that may shock you or burst into flames for extra graphic effect.
8. A Mach 3.0 microkernel and FreeBSD services
9. 4 Intel Core Quad processors
10. 1,288 Installation Wizards and a pop-up animated X cartoon character to gently guide you through any help it thinks you need – loudly and at random.
6. Tetris
So what?
But wait! This version of Tetris is innovative and groundbreaking! It has transparent blocks, a soundtrack by the two remaining BeeGees AND drop shadows! Ooooooooo! ! !
1- Microsoft has a mature business with Windows and any new growth in the space will be incremental. In order for them to grow, they have to find new markets and niches.
2- Over the last 5 years, while Apple has been maturing OS X and converting from PPC to Intel, Microsoft has made tremendous progress into the telematics (onboard automotive), embedded (non-GUI hardware) and PDA markets. Nobody was screaming as M$ has squashed Palm flatter than a Pancake, a la Netscape, Corel, etc.
3- Windows Media- the MOST popular format on the internet, has made significant inroads in the emerging Digital Media formats (including UPnP) and has found traction in Pro Video. Not dominant, but now with a foot-hold.
4- MSN is now a profitable business and with X-Box Live MS is well on it’s way to becoming a 2nd profitable IP-type business. Windows Live will just add to the fray.
5-Microsoft has cash by the truckload to throw at any market it cares to enter. They will sustain huge, multi-year losses in order to gain a beachhead in a market. Ask Sony, AOL and others.
If you are looking at Windows as simply an OS you have already missed the forest for the trees. Microsoft has evolved their platform from an OS to an ecosystem. Ten years ago it was an OS issue– not anymore. From Desktop to Laptop to Server to Embedded Device to PDA to Cell Phone to Game Console to Set-Top Box to UPnP Device to Car Telematics to Media– anyone entering the field has to be interoperable and compatible with MICROSOFT.
That may not be what you want to hear, but that is the plain and simple truth. If Apple instantly gained a 90% client OS market share they would still have much of what their OS does defined by Microsoft protocols, codecs and technologies.
Where is an embedded version of OS X? A PDA OS? An OS for Telematics? Cell Phones? True 64-bit Computing?
(Sound of Crickets)
Why don’t they just stick to what they do best:
Blue screen generators….
MW: See… as in MS tries to see the light…again!
The “iPod killer” project is named ” Longthorn” the original shipping date was 2007 but now it looks like it will slip to 2009 and a half. Who knows when is the actual ship date, just like Windows Vista, aka “Longhorn” also aka Windows XP SP3 or Windows 2000 SP 4. LOL
I recently read a commentary on microsoft saying that all they do is play catch up. There is little ground breaking innovation . . .they strive to produce their version of a search engine, an iPod, an OSX, a playstation etc. The comentator’s point was that if all they do is try to emulate what is already out there, they are in trouble.
hahahahha ANOTHER PSP???!
BRILLIANT!!! That thing’s tanking..
<3 <3 DS!
And how many times have we heard this before?
I’m sure the interface will be like learning scientific calculation to use it. And it will cost to much and it won’t be both PC/Mac compatible or iPod compatible which is where this will all go wrong.
Bla,bla,bla,bla…
Screw all of you
Microsoft Vista will be running on Macs by Christmas.
I’m actually a little concerned about Microsoft. Microsoft is like the “Borg” of Star Trek. To paraphrase Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg’s character) describing the Borg, once they set their sights on you, they will keep coming after you. Relentess, with a seemingly unlimited supply of raw material($$). Meanwhile you exhaust your resources.
True Microsoft will not produce a better product than Apple, but they can create a flood of mediocrity. While people “in the know” will not choose MS solution, Joe and Jane Sixpack will. “Ooh – it “works” with our new computer (Vista)”. The one thing MS is good at is “dumbing down” (which is not the same as improving) technology and flooding markets.
Let’s all just hope that Apple is indeed well enough entrenched to survive the flood. Only a small percentage of households own a MP3 player and I meet a Joe or Jane Sixpack everyday.
Peace.
“…Microsoft is starting from its position of strength in the entertainment business that it hopes Apple cannot match, even with its iPod.”
What? Is he talking XBox? Yeah, like all us adults own and play on an XBox. Duh. What about Music and Movies. This guy is a moron.
Macdude says, “Screw all of you
Microsoft Vista will be running on Macs by Christmas.”
I’ll have to decline your offer.
However, if simpletons want to run Fista on their Macs, fine. Apple still gets the profit off the sale, and the users will see OS X, and use it, and compare it to Fista, and see that OS X works seemlessly with iLife, and iTunes, and their iPod, and never use Fista again.
Has anyone seen the latest screenshot of the origami pc with the bottom corners on the left and right sides with quarter circle keyboard halves. You use your thumbs to type on the on-screen keyboard. Surprisingly, the keyboard is not transparent. I don’t think I could use it though since my thumbs are bigger than the small pie-shaped “keys”. Not that I would use one anyway.
Makes me think that a full-screen iPod, with a screen-based thumb wheel would be plausible.
Talking Points brings up some very good…ummm….points.
Microsoft will never go away, I do think though, that we have seen their best efforts already and each and every day that passes they become less and less relevant. Hence the reason that they can’t beat Apple’s iPod or Sony’s PlayStation or Google’s search or Quicken’s offerings or Salesforce’s system or Citrix’s products, etcetera.
Just because they can throw a gazillion dollars and man-hours at something, it doesn’t mean that it will be the best solution out there. And unlike the Windows scenario, which came about via monopoly abuse, in many cases the best solution does win out.
Of course, and unfortunately, this does not mean that they won’t gain traction on each and every field they decide to enter in. If you think about it, it should be fairly easy and painless for them to do that. Yet they make it hard and painful instead.
Also, lets not confuse the fact that because at one time they crushed puny, only interested in an IPO, badly managed companies like Palm, Corel, Netscape and Apple (at the time) they are going to be able to do it again. Microsoft will gain traction in everything they do, but the days of them dominating are long gone. Their monopoly is constantly under surveillance and with it, their ability to dominate.
You mention all these side business in which Microsoft has gained some traction. Well, great for them, but this is just in anticipation of their Windows and Office cash cows dying a slow but highly profitable death.
If Apple hasn’t entered these fields, it is for one reason and one reason alone. Pay attention, because this is the biggest difference between the puny Apple I mentioned before and the Apple that is kicking some serious ass this time around. Apple hasn’t entered these areas, because Apple has recognized that in technology, there is no first-mover advantage. The iPod and PlayStation are two examples of category killers that were not first to come out.
If you think about it, Apple is being successful because it is becoming more and more like Microsoft. With one difference, their culture allows them to learn from others and make things great right from the start.
Think about it, how many things has Apple created in the past three or four years that even the most faithful hated (or were evenly split about) at first? Yet, all these items have been succesful and have garnered the famous “foothold” you so like to point out.
– iMac (it didn’t even have a modem when it first came out)
– iPod (the first generation was really lousy and overpriced and iTunes wasn’t even their own technology)
– Aperture
– iPod Hi-Fi
– iTunes phone
– iWork
One more thing that makes Apple more and more like Microsoft, they no longer rely on their own technology to get things done. Intel motherboards/specs for their computers, someone else’s software, chips and components for the iPod.
I hate what Apple is becoming, but the more I think about it the more I realize that this is what is going to ensure that they’ll be around for and in an extremely strong position to battle the likes of Microsoft and others.
By the way, for those of you not familiar with it, OsiriX rocks:
http://homepage.mac.com/rossetantoine/osirix/Index2.html
macromancer:
Funny stuff. Laughed out loud.
Watch out for the bird shot.
Sony, Nintendo, and Apple should team up to kill Microsoft’s baby before it is born.
MW: Real… How weird…
It wipes your ass too.
Next.