“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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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.