“There are a lot of rumors this week about Microsoft’s anticipated iPod Killer,” Rob Enderle writes for Digital Trends.
If the rumors are true, “would create an interesting event where, on the Operating System front, Apple may have beat Microsoft to market with Leopard, while on the MP3 front, Microsoft has hit Apple equally hard,” Enderle writes. “Let’s take a look at what the components of an iPod Killer would have to be in order to truly ‘kill’ the iPod and whether Microsoft has the right stuff to even be a contender.”
According to Enderle:
• “Microsoft actually does have competitive design skills” to “beat Apple on design.”
• In “Ease of Use, “Microsoft has the potential” to “beat Apple.”
• “Apple is the most secure” on the issue of marketing, “the third leg of Apple’s competitive advantage.”
Enderle concludes, “Microsoft could build a product that would be an iPod Killer, but right now they aren’t demonstrating the marketing competence that would be required to allow the device to rise to its full potential… while Microsoft could build an iPod Killer, they currently lack the marketing capability to kill the iPod with it.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Michael L.” for the heads up.]
Enderle, as usual, has it all backwards. It is in the areas of “design skill” and “ease of use” that Apple is hardly threatened by Microsoft’s current vapor. It’s the “marketing” area at which Microsoft could throw vast sums of cash that Apple would be reluctant or unable to match.
The Joy of Tech: Things Microsoft could do to make you switch to their iPod killer.
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Eeesh.
Bor Elredne has it backwards because he is backwards.
Let’s hear it for Bor!
Enderle is round the benderle.
Ballmer: “Use more dinosaurs to market this thing”
Stroke of genius them dino’s.
Bonkers: Good one!!
And his office is a squalid and shabby little place somewhere in Retardville.
Bor Elredne from Retardville, USA!
If Microsoft has the design skills then he’s saying that they’re just not using them – I’ll let that go. when he says they have the potential to beat them on ease of use, he’s saying that they don’t actually have it at the moment. So what’s he’s effectively saying is that a company may, potentially, in the future be able to do something they can’t do now. Wow!
Microsoft’s new multi billion dollar marketing slogan….
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda!
Microsoft beat Apple on design? Yeah, and Rob Enderle might fly out of my butt!.
“It’s the “marketing” area at which Microsoft could throw vast sums of cash that Apple would be reluctant or unable to match.”
For the iPod?? I don’t think so. Besides, with the position Apple currently is in with the iPod, they don’t have to run as large an ad campaign to get the word out. A few ads on TV and in print and word of mouth will take care of the rest.
Remember “plays for sure”?
Thought not.
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Enderle’s posts lack the intellectual impact of a rigorously researched report or well-thought analysis. Enderle’s “interpretations” are typically sparsely constructed generalized opinions based on incomplete data, untested assumptions, and inaccurate conclusions. Reading anything Enderle writes will make you more stupid after the fact.
It’s Monday!, Enderle spouts his FUD again
Why has it taken Enderle 5 years to think through this “brilliant strategy”? How long must Enderele contemplate a technological conundrum to arrive at an ostensibly obvious answer? If the solution to counter Apple’s achievements is so patently evident, why has no one else been successful in competing with Apple?
People like Enderle haven’t a clue how to do much of anything except post what can best be described as mental excrement or cognitive caca.
I know what MS needs…cowbell, more cowbell!
Look at the XBox, XBox 360, and Microsoft’s higher-end keyboards and mice. They actually do some pretty decent hardware design. Maybe they can’t design a cultural icon like the iPod, but they can make something that works well and looks nice.
Look at XBox Live or the XBoxes’ operating systems. Microsoft actually can make simple, easy-to-use interfaces. Spend five minutes on Live and you’ll agree: any idiot can figure it out.
As far as marketing, Apple is WAY ahead of Microsoft. If Jobs were heading up the Vista project he’d have spun it into the most hotly anticipated product of the decade, regardless of delays, rather than an industry laughing stock. Microsoft just comes up with crap likes “Plays for Sure.” Obviously really bad marketing.
I’m as big a Mac-head as anyone, but you guys are way too quick to jump on anything remotely positive about Microsoft.
The new M$ MP3 player would sport 63 buttons, a full sized QWERTY keyboard, and a harddrive with the ability to be partitioned into mini 1KB file sizes. It will come with a harness and crane so that it can be fully supported on your dashboard. Of course, it could never be used in the hospital or outdoors, causing wide-spread panic from the melting of polar icecaps.
That would be Enderle’s iPod killer…and a killer of life-form throughout the earth…
(but [some of] you guys are way too quick to jump on anything remotely positive about Microsoft)
As MS does atleast eight to nine negative things for every ‘positive’, it’s extremely difficult to get all ‘cheerleader’. Their ‘positive’ outcomes appear to be accidents, when compared to their other behavior.
Marketing has always been the ONLY thing Microsh*t has been good at.
http://www.g-zus.net/
Microsoft will definitely NOT be the company to build the iPod killer because they lack the “cool” factor. I have no doubt that eventually the iPod’s share will erode at least some, but it’ll most likely be a variety of little guys that take it, not one single product from an aging monolithic company. MS is just wasting their money.
Colin,
No matter how decent the design of the XBOX and 360 are the fact is that they can’t pay for themselves in the marketplace and M$ has to take a hit on each one. What’s the point of nice designs if you have to sell them at a loss.
People keep using the XBOX as example that M$ can do design. The XBOX business model can’t work in the music game. Knockng out a music player at a loss expecting to make money on the content won’t work.
The labels won’t take a smaller cut and the public won’t pay more than $0.99.
The iPods have proved that they are great designs and they make a nice healthy pile.
Making $50-$100 accessories is a totally different thing to a $300 lifestyle icon.
The first Xbox design was a joke. 360 is much improved and very “Apple-esque”. I still think Apple should have kept the pippin going and tried to battle it out in the game industry. Most don’t realize that MS is trying to use the 360 as their secret weapon into the home entertainment space since those XP Media Edition PCs are a joke.
MS will eventually use Xbox Live to take on iTunes by creating “Live Anywhere” which can be accessed from many devices.
What I don’t get is why MS went with a crappy DVD drive. It’s very noisy. Most people think the fans are what creates all the noise. Not true, play a DVD movie on the 360 when the drive runs at 1x, it’s almost whisper quiet. Play a game when it’s running at 12x and it sounds like a hair dryer.
it’s going to take a lot more than design to beet iPod+iTunes
have they considered:
1) iPods accessory market
2) integration with automobiles
3) International iTunes stores
4) iTunes University
all these things and more are reinforcing iTunes+iPod as as the only game in town
I have made this blog where we publish enderles drivel – then we avoid the sucker getting too much traffic on his sites !
http://robenderle.blogspot.com/
please use this instead of looking up where he has published he fever-fanatsys !
anyone remember his e-mail ?
thanx in advance
(the blog is of course non-profitt / no ads )
The only way Microsoft could kill the iPod would be to send out an army of goons to physically smash every iPod in the universe.
Not that I would necessarily put this past them…
I want to try the drugs this guy is on.
It’s tough to say who’s crazier Enderle or Dvorak!
Quote:
“According to Enderle:
• “Microsoft actually does have competitive design skills” to “beat Apple on design.”
• In “Ease of Use, “Microsoft has the potential” to “beat Apple.”
• “Apple is the most secure” on the issue of marketing, “the third leg of Apple’s competitive advantage.”
I was watching the SciFi Channel’s Twilight Zone Marathon over the 4th of July weekend. Enderle’s article needs it’s own episode.
Anyone care to write a typical Rod Serling intro to Enderle’s episode?