Playing To Their Strengths, Microsoft To Create iPod Competitor (suckPod anyone?)

by James R. Stoup Jan 27, 2006

For the last four years, in the domain of digital music, Microsoft has played the role of pinata to Apple’s drunken frat boys with baseball bats. It has not been pretty. And so, after taking a rather severe beating in this emerging business of digital music, rumors have finally started to abound that Microsoft is now ready to enter the arena. Apparently they wanted to steal the title of “worst designed MP3 player of the year” award away from Sony and their “bean of music”. Or maybe they just have a few million lying around and they don’t know what to do with it. Anything could be possible.

But I think that what most likely occurred was that Gates finally realized that Apple is using the iPod + ITMS combo as a trojan horse to gain access to your living room. The future of computing will be to move your computer into your living room and merge it with your TV. The Xbox 360 is a move in this direction. However, it won’t be enough by itself. And it will ultimately be overshadowed by Apple’s entry into this area. So, this could be why MS wants to create a competitor to the iPod. Either way, here are some observations of mine.

The price (losing money all the way)
I am seeing another Xbox vs PS2 fight where MS loses money on every unit sold in a desperate attempt to win market share. Since they won’t be able to get a deal like Apple’s on memory they won’t be able to match the iPod’s price. This means that they will either have to sell their product at a higher price or risk loosing money to stay competitive with Apple. Also, due to the demand of the iPod, flash memory in large quantities is going to be scarce for a while, so even if MS can release something on time they will have to deal with supply issues.

The impact to the industry
Good bye Creative. Hello Chapter 11. Apple has already put several companies out of the MP3 player business and this trend will get dramatically worse if MS enters the market. When the dust settles there will only be 3 companies standing, Apple, Microsoft and Sony (probably in that order too). No one else has the cash reserves to stick with this market in the face of such competition.

Apple’s response
If MS does indeed come out with its own player this will have some interesting repercussions. For instance, all of the smaller companies will no longer have a reason to support Microsoft’s DRM system. Since they are now all going to be competing in the same space using Microsoft’s standard is no longer an advantage for them. So, one thing Apple could do would be to license FairPlay. This would give the competition access to the ITMS (and potentially hurt iPod sales) but Apple would be in a position to make its brand of DRM the standard. This would become more important as more and more digital media is sold online.

The MSN Music Store, making Wal-Mart look good by comparision
If Microsoft really does release an MP3 player they would be foolish indeed not to release their version of the ITMS. Because without the online aspect their players would have no advantage over Sony’s or Creative’s. So, if one comes out then the other is a given. However, since ease of use hasn’t always been Microsoft’s mantra I expect this venture to be just one giant vortex of suck.

Media Player, because some people like pain
Media Player isn’t the worst MP3 playing software out there, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t continually shooting for that bottom spot. I hate MP with a passion. And as bad as it is on a PC, it is actually worse on the Mac. And so if Microsoft wants its hardware to sell they are going to need some software that will get the job done at least as well as iTunes. Can they do this? Not with Media Player. But maybe with a new piece of software it could be accomplished. I would suggest buying a company that makes what they need and just adapting it. That seems to be a much better solution than forcing Media Player to work well.

Either way, the more I look at Microsoft entering this market the more I think “well, it had to happen eventually, right?”

Comments

  • No I have to come in and say that I don’t agree with Beeblebrox who is in danger of lookiing like a raving, ranting lunatic, or at least sounding like one.

    I guess not drinking the Apple Kool-aid might seem like ranting to the indoctrinated eye, but apart from my lack of drone-like devotion to Apple/Steve Jobs, nothing I’ve said here is any different from anything others have said.  It’s just directed at Apple users instead of Windows users.

    So isn’t it funny how you guys let it slide, or even defend it, when you happen to agree with the ravings and rantings? 

    Like I said, if you genuinely have a problem with rudeness, fine.  But if “rude” only applies to me and not the attacks on Windows users, then it’s meaningless, hypocritical tripe.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 2220
  • Beeblebrox, I have _said_ that I am not a “mac drone”.

    “Jose’s point is asinine.  You happen to share his opinion and therefore agree with him, no surprise there.  But that doesn’t make it “true” in the broad sense or any other sense.”

    No, Jose’s point is a simplification of what follows from points 1 and 2: that the majority of users are windows users through lack of effective choice, and you could say they are therefore being “controlled” by Gates in a different sense that you say we are being “controlled” by Jobs.

    “What you really mean is that the Mac drones can say whatever they want about anyone, but the ones who don’t agree with you have to shut up.”
    That’s not what I mean. It doesn’t fit with what I said at all. It’s what you’d like to think I meant, because it would fit with your conception of “mac drones”. Despite the fact I’ve given good reasons for buying apple stuff that don’t immediately suggest I’m “lobotomised”. Note that Oskar isn’t lobotomised either: we accept there are reasons to buy other things.

    The fan-freaks you’re talking about probably exist somewhere, in similar proportions to those for other things, like windows and wotsits. But is it really not ok for people to prefer and advocate macs, because they find the subjective experience preferable to using pcs? Yes, you _are_ looking like a lunatic, because we are, I reckon, just doing that. The stuff about the obviously-irrelevant bsod and suckpods is just friendly banter!

    In summary: Whoa there, pickle!

    Benji had this to say on Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 927
  • Just to clarify, when I say
    “the majority of users are windows users through lack of effective choice”
    I mean not that most of them would necessarily switch, but that they haven’t explored the alternatives and as such it would be a distortion to say they’re actually choosing their os.

    Benji had this to say on Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 927
  • No, Jose’s point is a simplification of what follows from points 1 and 2: that the majority of users are windows users through lack of effective choice, and you could say they are therefore being “controlled” by Gates in a different sense that you say we are being “controlled” by Jobs.

    First of all, my reference to the mind-control wasn’t over choosing an OS.  It’s the regurgitation of Apple talking points, the fanatical defense of all things Apple, and the rather bizarre delusions and mindless contradictions, which you seem to have in abundance.

    Whatever the reasons, that cult mentality simply does not exist on the Windows side.

    Note that Oskar isn’t lobotomised either:

    I never said Oskar was a Mac-drone and I don’t think he is.

    we accept there are reasons to buy other things.

    And yet anyone who buys a Windows machine simply had no choice, right?  Because this comment does not square with this one:

    it would be a distortion to say they’re actually choosing their os.

    Windows users either make that choice or they don’t.  Which is it?  You can’t have it both ways just so you can pretend you’re taking a moral high ground and that you’re not a labotomized Mac-drone.

    The fan-freaks you’re talking about probably exist somewhere, in similar proportions to those for other things, like windows and wotsits.

    Nice try but no.  First of all, even most labotomized Mac-drones have stopped pretending that labotomized Mac-drones don’t exist.  So you can drop the disengenous “gee, I’ve never heard of this cult of Mac of which you speak”.

    Second, this is yet another example of text-book Mac-drone contradiction.

    The Mac-drones claim on the one hand that “Mac users love their computers.  You don’t ever hear about a Windows user loving their computer.”

    But in the face of criticism of Mac-fanaticism, they suddenly try to claim: “there are just as many Windows fanatics!”  As you’ve claimed here.

    Well, it can’t be both.  You can’t simultaneously deny that there are Windows fanatics and then claim there are just as many of them as Mac-drones.

    But that’s exactly what you’ve done.  Several times.  You criticize rudeness when it comes to my comments, but defend Jose’s.  You claim that there are as many Windows fanatics as Mac fanatics, but that Windows users don’t choose their OS.

    In other words, nothing you say is based on any actual principle or rationality.  It’s all a knee-jerk defense of Apple and Apple users while denegrating Windows users.  You are the text-book example of what I’m talking about.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 2220
  • Btw, to re-iterate this whole point about rudeness and ranting.

    “Yes, you _are_ looking like a lunatic”

    The person who is saying this about me is the one who claims that this statement is rude:

    ““Boy, would I love to have Jobs’s mind-control power over a multitude of minions the way he does.”

    But that this statment is TRUE:

    “Boy, would I love to have Gate’s mind-control power over the multitude of incompetent corporate decision makers”

    And that:

    “the majority of users are windows users through lack of effective choice, and you could say they are therefore being “controlled” by Gates in a different sense that you say we are being “controlled” by Jobs.”

    In other words, I have no reason to be bothered by what YOU consider “lunacy.”  I’m comforted by it, because to be sane in your world is to have my brain surgically removed and replaced with an Apple-branded microchip that tells me what to think.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 2220
  • Just to clarify, I don’t agree with Beeblebrox that Apple is alive only because of their fanatics.

    In an effort to respond to a NON-labotomized NON-Mac-drone, I will concede to you that this might be true.  Certainly as Mac gains market share, this will become less and less true.

    But for the time-being, and definitely in the past, Apple has relied on repeat business from existing customers to stay alive.

    But I do think they exist, and anyone who regards Windows users as unenlightened probably falls into that category.

    I agree.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 2220
  • But for the time-being, and definitely in the past, Apple has relied on repeat business from existing customers to stay alive.

    That’s probably true, but people repeatedly buying macs aren’t necessarily drones. My mom works on macs exclusively because she edits graphical pamphlets. Macs are still great at some things (graphics & education, and now UNIX programming) so they’ve got a dedicated repeat audience. No prob with that.

    Anyway I sort of misquoted you, I was actually refering to when <a >you said</a>: “Right now, the Mac drones are really what’s keeping the Mac viable.”

    It’s definitely not true that Apple (the company) survives on them, especially with the iPod success, but it is perhaps more convincing when you’re referring to macs in particular.

    Oskar had this to say on Jan 31, 2006 Posts: 86
  • Beeblebrox, you take my comments out of context and without attempting understanding them. I am far from a mac drone, and if lobotomised am doing surprisingly well for myself.

    I am sorry you do not find my comments constructive. I do not find yours constructive either.

    Benji had this to say on Jan 31, 2006 Posts: 927
  • Who’da thunk that a little music player could cause such a stir. Obviously, the only solution is a merger. MicrAp will bring about the long-awaited world peace. Over time, spirited arguments among beauty pageant contestants, computer users and digital music aficionados that “my crap is better than your crap” will be replaced by harmonious, passionate spending on anything and everything that MicrAp can build.

    MicrAp, MicrAp, MicrAp!

    jorrrge had this to say on Feb 08, 2006 Posts: 1
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