“Microsoft has said reports that the company is planning an MP3 player to rival the iPod are based on ‘speculation and rumours,'” The BBC reports.
“Unnamed music industry executives have told the New York Times that they have received briefings about the product,” The Beeb reports. “The iPod rival would have wireless internet capabilities to download music without a PC, said the report.”
“Earlier this year reports that Microsoft was developing a rival to iPod proved inaccurate. The firm was developing a new handheld computer platform technology which was then licensed to third-party companies to build,” The Beeb reports. “Nate Elliott, digital home analyst at Jupiter Research, said that if Microsoft were planning an MP3 player it would be because of ‘frustration.’ ‘Microsoft and its partners have made no significant headway into Apple’s dominance of the market.'”
“Mr Elliott said Microsoft would have a challenge breaking Apple’s hold on the market. ‘Apple has a fantastic product. Other mp3 manufacturers have added features to their products but the vast majority of consumers have voted with their wallet and bought iPods. The extra features do not seem to matter to them.’ Mr Elliott said Microsoft was entering the market before it was too late,” The Beeb reports.
Full article here.
According to C. Max Magee of Indie Research, and Microsoft “plan is risky for a number of reasons. First and foremost, no one has successfully taken on the iPod, which has become one of the most recognizable and iconic brands in recent memory. Microsoft would have to offer an alternative that was compelling on many fronts for it to make a significant dent in the iPod’s market share.”
“The move is also risky because it will put Microsoft in competition with some of its customers. Samsung, Sony, Creative Technology, and others use Microsoft software in their music and video players,” Magee explains. “Microsoft certainly faces an uphill battle if it’s going to knock Apple off its perch, especially when one considers that Microsoft hasn’t been terribly successful at breaking into new markets that stray from its core software products… It’s never a good idea to dismiss the plans of a company as ambitious and powerful as Microsoft, but for all the reasons mentioned above, it’s hard to imagine that Microsoft will be able to end the iPod’s dominance.”
Full article here.
“If even the likes of Sony are unable to hinder the iPod’s market domiance, Microsoft is going to do so with what could very well be a me-too machine? Microsoft has been in the handheld media game for a very long time now with little to show for it,” Tony Smith writes for The Register. “The Bloomberg report talks about MS’ gadget having better picture quality than the iPod’s, but again, that’s easy to do – and equally easy for Apple to top in a future incarnation of the iPod, such as the video-oriented model once rumoured to have been scheduled for an April 2006 debut but now expected later this year at the earliest. The same goes for the addition of other neat-sounding features, such as Wi-Fi support – if Microsoft offers them, Apple will too, soon enough.”
Full article here.
Red Herring reports, “‘The portable video market has been dealing with suboptimal products for a long time,’ said Roger Kay, founder of the technology research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. ‘Microsoft sees the problem and they probably see an opportunity to make their market entry… This will not be the first time that Microsoft trails Apple into the market. It took Microsoft a decade after the introduction of the Mac to market Windows, so following Apple into the MP3 market by five years is not that surprising.'”
Full article here.
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“Microsoft has said reports that the company is planning an MP3 player to rival the iPod are based on ‘speculation and rumours'”
Exactly right. Microsoft don’t expect it to rival the iPod.
I almost want MS to make a fool out of itself by doing this. It could be very fruitful for Apple (pun intended).
In the mean time all those WMA licensees are financing their future competition (Microsoft).
New Contest: Name The New Microsoft Music Player
My entries:
iPoo
iWish
iSuck
cRAPr
C’mon – let’s make this a fun Friday!
iPotty(sounds like pody)
MicroPud
iGotTheRuns(if they try to team up with some shoe company)
XSux 24/7
origaZami
MyPod
Backpedalling. They tested the market themselves with a rumor, nobody liked it so now it’s just ‘speculation and rumors’.
Don’t forget, you load the MyPod from the music in the My Music folder, which can be found on My Computer. What is up with their friggin need to be “My” in front of everything? Morons.
There. That’s My Response.
MicroSuperDuperPooper
New Contest: Name The New Microsoft Music Player
MS-WMA-MP3-2006A
Or something equally catchy.
If they decide to to actually make something, how much you wanna bet they actually COPY Steve Jobs’ “X-Player” name he gave in that interview?
For Immediate Release-
Dateline: 4 October 2007
After months of delays Microsoft today unveiled its entry in the ongoing quest to dethrone the king of the portable music player hill, Apple’s iPod®, in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season. The iPod® currently is the market leader by a wide margin. Apple reports they’ve shipped 127 million of the players since the original iPod’s introduction in 2001.
Today Microsoft began shipping its Model TR80-A500i Digital Universal Music Box with Download & Upload Datalinks. Analysts have taken to calling this latest entry in the music wars the “TR80” for short, bringing to mind the old “TRS-80” from Tandy Corporation (see Radio Shack), a cludgy early computer from the 1980’s. Bloggers, however, already have christened Microsoft’s player with another moniker, an acronym derived from its own rather long and lengthy corporate name: The DUMBDUD.
Microsoft – For whatever you want to hear today … that we control
The DUMBDUD
” QUICK BOYS! BACK PEDAL BACK PEDAL!!!”
If M$ actually went through with this, how much you wanna bet they actually COPY the theoretical name Steve Jobs gave it in that interview……X-Player. Look for the name in their hopeless excessive but underpromising marketing.
Using that name would show the lowest thing this company has ever done since it was founded, no wait, MS-DOS, no wait, Windows 3.1, 95,98, 98 SE, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, the Xbox, Origami– ugh- lets just say it would be a low low thing to do, for the list of low things Microsoft has done is too long to actually compare which thing is more pitiful.
Yeah G-Spank as expected Microsloth ( I like that term too!) would make a fool of itself and since Apple Mac’s can run Windows, as we all know of course, the fall out of such a failure if such a Microsoft MP3 player exists, might be enough for a Windows users to actually go and at least try out a Mac.
Consider that if:
a) their favorite game happens to run a lot faster on a Mac as I heard that Windows does on comparison.
b) run Windows for a while and try out the Mac OS now and again before popping back into Windows and continue playing out of sheer curiosity.
c) ask their favorite game software developer to make a Mac OSX version due to the above being true and now find that MS had been lying to them after all. Point here is if enough gamers do the same, Mac OSX versions will appear.
d) decide that life without Windows is possible and dump it in favor of Mac OSX – the fruits of that risk Apple is taking with Boot Camp. Of course those that use Linux might buy a Mac to run their preferred Linux flavor via Paralles* software.
e) finding along with d that the Mac needs less attention to it and it really does work as those ads kept saying to even equate to more dollars savings in their pocket at the end of each month. Enabling them to buy their next game themselves and not have to bug a family member for it.
f) Codeweavers Macwine enables the majority of Windows only games to run on Mac OSX without Windows at all and at much faster speeds than VirtualPC ever did (see a above).
Of course I’ve left out professionals and professional software, such as Sage** for Business Accounting, as even these folks play games in order to wind down after a hectic day and of course their higher pay package enables them to buy a game anytime they want without bothering anyone anyhows, that is as long as the wife/husband is okay with that.
* Sure Paralles software is by far the best way to run Windows as well as Mac OSX than Boot Camp is, but that is right now and I have a sneaky feeling the majority of what Paralles does will be in OSX Leopard. Didn’t someone mention an “early adopters tax” somewhere?
**Yes I do know of MYOB that carries out this task on both Mac and Windows much better than Sage, but now I’m digressing.
ok, i only meant to add the second comment, but whatever
“New Contest: Name The New Microsoft Music Player
MS-WMA-MP3-2006A
Or something equally catchy.”
That actually looks more like a Sony product name.
Microsoft intorduces
The I-streamE-Podbj-DittydittyGo-BangBOB Almost Proffesional Edition with semi full support for some stuff.
version 1.0
X-Player is a good name for Microsoft’s Vapour Player.
Microsoft is too stupid to use it.
New Contest: Name The New Microsoft Music Player
iSteal ,
Play for shiat!
Jay Leno said
“TRS-80” from Tandy Corporation (see Radio Shack), a cludgy early computer from the 1980′ “
Actually it was from the late 70’s and wasn’t cludgy. Cludgy didn’t come about until the PC-AT.
On another note, FEATURES WITHOUT BENEFITS do not sell anything. Basic sales.