Gates: We will challenge iPod

news.com ^ | February 11, 2006 | Reuters

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REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft and its hardware partners will continue to develop new digital media devices aimed at challenging the dominance of Apple Computer's ubiquitous iPod music player, Chairman Bill Gates said on Friday.

"I don't think what's out on the market today is the final answer," Gates said, speaking to a group of minority students. "Between us and our partners, you can expect some pretty hot products coming out over the next few years."

The Microsoft founder praised Apple's iTunes music store and said the software giant was talking with hardware partners to create media devices that can be less expensive and easier to connect and can handle pictures and video better.

Gates said the market share for digital music players compatible with Microsoft software is around 20 percent, a figure that is lower than he would like.

Microsoft's strategy has been to allow various device manufacturers to create players that would be compatible with its software, arguing that it offered consumers more options.

However, BusinessWeek reported last week that Microsoft is mulling its own media device in an effort to cut into Apple's nearly 70 percent U.S. market share. The company declined to comment on the article at the time.

Gates did not disclose any plans for a Microsoft-branded device on Friday and alluded often to working together with partners for future media devices.

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M$ is good at marketing, perhaps it can offer a challenge to iPod Nation.

[stainlessbanner]

podder-ping

[x5452]

Sure it'll make a version which forces users to convert to a proprietary codec that they insist is open, and which will send data on all their listening habits to Redmond, further it will support a single button for simplicity; depending how fast or slow or how many times you press the single button it will do different things but none of them will be visually verified, and you'll have to open the documentation on the cd rom to know how many times/speed for which functions. The product will be announced shortly to great fanfare and ship 2.5 years from now, a year and a half latter than announced, though you'll be able to pre-order immeadiatly.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

it'll make a version which forces users to convert to a proprietary codec that they insist is open, and which will send data on all their listening habits to Redmond

Just like the iPod, eh?

[Cincinatus]

Gates: We will challenge iPod

In the immortal words of Tuco (from The Good, The Bad, and tThe Ugly):

"If you're going to shoot somebody, Shoot! Don't talk!"

[x5452]

The iPod doesn't send anything about your listening habits. iTunes (computer software which works with the iPod) CAN but you can also turn it off, in fact it's off by default now.

I leave it on, I'd be all to happy if it would make suggestions based on my listening habits (which are mostly Russian pop and occasional jpop).

[ShadowAce]

[finnman69]

Ipod and Apple will be subject to one of the biggest class action suits in history as tens of thousands suffer permanent hearing loss.

Microsoft should market their version as a safe Ipod.

[cinives]

You forgot - and we will make it so open that we will accept all viruses, spyware and trojan horses that will destroy the OS and slow down the play ...

[Glenn]

Ipod and Apple will be subject to one of the biggest class action suits in history as tens of thousands suffer permanent hearing loss.

The really cool thing about FreeRepublic is that idiots can say anything that pops into their heads. It makes for great comedy.

[x5452]

Hey you're right I did forget that!
(Does the xbox sport viruses/viri as yet?)

[xsrdx]

"Between us and our partners, you can expect some pretty hot products coming out over the next few years."

*Yawn*.

I don't see Microsoft building a better mousetrap here. They don't specialize in either sound quality, or simplistic user GI's, issues that make the iPod enormously successful. And iTunes has a giant head start.

Good luck, Bill.

[Sender]

Announcing the new Wpod!

-plays only DRM encrypted WMA files
-requires you to re-license your tracks daily
-has only 3 simple controls; CTRL ALT DEL -featuring new random "blue screen" lcd display -your 25-digit product key; don't leave home without it

[1Old Pro]

Microsoft needs to wake up and compete....two words: I-Pod & Blackberry.

[xsrdx]

And further, the iPod is botique. Nobody does Botique better than Apple.

MS might rule the world, but they almost define "mundane".

[N3WBI3]

The iPod can use MP3 which is not an apple proprietary codec

[LexBaird]

Not too idiotic. Someone is already trying to sue Apple based on IPod hearing loss.

[Final Authority]

I called my daughter the other day on her cell phone. She had it beside her while she was doing homework on the computer and was listening to her iPod nano. The phone was in vibrate mode. It apparently caused the iPod to incrementalize the volume and she had to throw off the ear phones because of the intense pain. The phone and the nano were right next to each other on the desk.

There will be hearing damage as it has already been determined. In grade school and in college nearly every weekend there would be a dance or coffee house with live bands playing R&R or R&B. It often was loud but according to my wife, the sound pressures generated by the ear bud type ear phones can be much higher.

Fortunately for both Apple and MS, because there are so many MP3 manufacturers and because the cause of the damage is well known, I don't think they should be targets of tort law suits.

[1Old Pro]

Microsoft Venture Adds to Blackberry Woes

Blackberry and I-Pod are two technologies that one would have assumed Microsoft to have been a leader on. But, better late than never.

[xsrdx]

botique = boutique DOH!

[ShadowAce]

The iPod can use MP3 which is not an apple proprietary codec

Can it play OGG files?

[rhombus]

I've been using my PDA for a couple of years now with mp3s and video. It also has MS Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer and I use it to keep track of my checkbook. It seems like Microsoft has been competing.

[dfwgator]

Microsoft is good at being the second mouse, as opposed to being the early worm.

[dmz]

Gosh, Sony never was a subject of such a lawsuit when the various walkman type devices came out several thousand years ago. Ear buds are not new . I had something very similar with my transistor radio.

The iPod also has the following feature in common with the Walkman, it's called a volume control.

[BunnySlippers]

iPod is no different than my Walkman in terms of hearing loss. Sure trial lawyers will try. I can't see why someone would be cheering them on though.

[dfwgator]

I meant the 'early bird' (got my cliches mixed up)

[CFC__VRWC]

The product will be announced shortly to great fanfare and ship 2.5 years from now, a year and a half latter than announced, though you'll be able to pre-order immeadiatly.

And it'll ship with a crude and bug-raddled version of the OS, so you'll be paying 300 bucks or so to beta test the software. By the time a halfway stable OS is released, it'll require so much processor power that you'll have no choice but to buy a new player.

[N3WBI3]

Dont think so, the Neuros can but its a piece of crap..

[ARA]

The lawsuit would have to happen with Sony first, since they are the inventors of the portable music device... the sone walkman... I think any lawsuit against Apple is a non-starter...

[xsrdx]

iPod compatible formats:

Mac: AAC (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3 (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR), WAV, AIFF, Audible.

Windows: AAC (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3 (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR), WAV, Audible.

[ShadowAce]

Thanks for the info

Guess I won't be purchasing one of these, then....

[theFIRMbss]

>Gates: We will challenge iPod

The beta version
of the Microsoft M-Pod
is a little big,

but Gates promises
to get the form factor down
by 50% . . .

[tx_eggman]

The really cool thing about FreeRepublic is that idiots can say anything that pops into their heads. It makes for great comedy.

Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark ...

[stainlessbanner]

We know what you meant, dfwgator.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Looking at my sister's iPod Nano--no. I have to convert the OGG into MP3 or M4a format.

It'd be nice though--the OGG format seems to be a lot more cleaner and nicer-sounding, IMO.

[AnOldCowhand]

By the time a halfway stable OS is released, it'll require so much processor power that you'll have no choice but to buy a new player.

On the plus side; If they're concentrating on iPods and Xboxes then they won't be constantly screwing with Windows.

[tx_eggman]

Blackberry and I-Pod are two technologies that one would have assumed Microsoft to have been a leader on. But, better late than never.

Better late than never .... this could pass as Microsoft's vision statement

[stainlessbanner]

http://ipodlinux.org/

[rzeznikj at stout]

Of course, if anyone's got $100 and an Altoids tin, people have built their own iPod-compatible mp3 players...

[pageonetoo]

M$ is good at marketing...

NOW ALL THEY NEED IS A PRODUCT!

iPod video patent just filed... touchscreen... larger version screen, with ability to buy all types of imports from iTunes.

I sold my AAPL holdings a couple weeks ago, and made a killing. I bught some back this week! I expect to make another...

[Centurion2000]

bump

[rzeznikj at stout]

There's also a method to install the popular Slax distro on an iPod Nano:

Click Here

Whoops! Gotta head to class...

[stainlessbanner]

I recently did the IPL installation. It leaves you with a dual boot iPod. The IPL has packages for games like Doom and Halo; also plays video clips (uncompressed).

I will have to check out SLAX. Even after the conversion, I was still tied to iTunes to move files on/off the iPod.

[lawgirl]

Better make it cheap and better make it cute.

[finnman69]

People dont wear Walkmans nearly as much as you see Ipods being worn. I see it in NYC and ama mazed at people using Ipods to screen out street noise or subways.

[finnman69]

The lawsuit would have to happen with Sony first, since they are the inventors of the portable music device... the sone walkman... I think any lawsuit against Apple is a non-starter...


http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=178601009

Apple Hit With iPod Hearing Loss Lawsuit

The suit asks for unspecified damages, and demands that Apple Computer update the iPod software so its portable music players can't blast tunes at more than 100 decibels.

A Louisiana man filed a lawsuit this week claiming that Apple's iPod can cause hearing loss.

The suit, submitted to a San Jose, Calif. federal court on behalf of John Kiel Patterson of Louisiana, seeks class-action status, asks for unspecified damages, and demands that Apple Computer update the iPod software so the portable music players can't blast tunes at more than 100 decibels.

Hard on the heels of experts saying that the use of earbud-style headphone like those bundled with iPods can lead to hearing loss, Patterson's suit charges Apple with not advising users of a safe listening volume, nor including a meter on the devices to monitor decibel levels.

"The ear buds are small and are placed in the listener's ear canal, close to the cochlea,'' the lawsuit read. "The close proximity to the ear canal directly impacts the amount of hearing loss caused by the MPs [music players], simply because there is less chance of dilution of the sound.''

Apple's practice is to not comment on pending legal action, but it has made some adjustments to iPod volume in the past. In 2002, for instance, it had to restrict the devices' output to 100 decibels to sell them in France.

The last time Apple was hit with a class action was in October 2005, when disgruntled buyers of the iPod nano complained that the gizmo's screen scratched too easily.

The company's iPod line has a stranglehold on the portable digital player market, and holds an estimated 70 percent of the business globally. In January, Apple said that it sold 14 million iPods in the last three months of 2005.

[Wolfie]

Oh for the days when the world wasn't watching, and you could just rip off the product and call it your own, eh Bill?

[cinives]

I think the xbox runs on a stripped-down w2k kernel ;)

[tx_eggman]

Microsoft's business strategy corresponds to a corollary of the cliche you ere going for. They strive to be the "bird" in:

"The early worm gets eaten by the bird"

[TChris]

Cynical predictions about Microsoft's digital music player:

(Feel free to add your own)

• It will be more complicated to use than the iPod, but the word "intuitive" will repeatedly come out of every Microsoft employee's mouth when describing the product.
• It will have "digital rights management" "features" to make sure you only play "legal" music downloaded from Microsoft-approved sites, using Microsoft-approved software (read: Windows Media Player on Windows XP)
• The first demonstration of the unit before a live audience will be by Bill Gates and it will crash.
• The player will not play MP3 files initially. Gates will publicly declare that MP3 isn't important and that the WMA format is far more popular and gives users all the features they really want anyway. When sales clunk, Microsoft will quickly become the self-proclaimed MP3 masters of the universe and make every product they sell play MP3 files, including their keyboards and mice.
• It will never, ever play OGG Vorbis files. ...until someone hacks it to run on Linux.
• You will get absolutely sick of hearing how "innovative" it is. Even though Microsoft is sure to be just about the last one to the party. Again.