Bill Gates on Microsoft's iPod Competitors

[Marky_Mark]

Sadly, there are.


What some of Apple's competitors don't seem to realize, is that they're in a race against the clock. The longer Apple continues selling songs via iTMS, the more they cement their position as the market leader.

Well, you say that, but 20 years ago, Sony's Walkman brand was seemingly just as unassailable. Cassettes were ubiquitous, but technology and media changes still left them behind.

Something better will come along, it always does.

 

[amateurmacfreak]

This is old news that doesn't relate to mac rumors at all.

but besides the obvious..
I would welcome a MS mp3 player. it would not only force MS to start developing media player for OS X again, but it would bring some competition to apple.

The iPod really is starting to lose it's gusto, and there are some things I sorley miss from my XP days that iTunes doesn't do...

Um... why would they develop Windows Media Player for OS X again? I don't think they care about our little iPod using corner over here. 😱 I don't think it would come out in the long run to be good for MS to keep on doing it for OS X.

 

[Eniregnat]

Content suppliers love "good" DRM.
Conjoined software and hardware offers fairly secure DRM.
If you think iTunes sucks for adding hashing to some kinds of rips, wait till you see what MS Vista offers. Big Brother is watching, and all he wants is a credit card and a little honesty.

 

[amateurmacfreak]

bring on the iTMS 7 with dvd ripping!!!

EDIT: Excuse me... i mean "importing" 😉

Haha, yeah, like that will ever happen. The movie companies would be so pissed. I love my Handbrake. 🙂 And it's so hard to find a good software for that (that rips into MP4) that's free for Windows. Yay. Loooove Handbrake.

 

[iShane]

I don't think anyone can really beat the iPod seeing as it has almost all the features available. Maybe wireless internet and a digital camera. Besides. The iPod isn't Just a music player. For some people its a fashion statement.

 

[Timepass]

I don't think anyone can really beat the iPod seeing as it has almost all the features available. Maybe wireless internet and a digital camera. Besides. The iPod isn't Just a music player. For some people its a fashion statement.

at the same time I know people who refuse to buy an apple product.

But that being said Gates is right that it the software side of the iPod that makes it so powerful. It not in the player itself. From playing around with a Zen and iPods neither design is really better than the other. The Shuffle is just a very common flash design that is used by a lot of flash players and is a though back to one of creatives first players. But what makes the iPod so great is iTunes itself.

I have played around with WMP 10 and it holds a lot of promise in it for the most part they do about the same thing, both have smart playlist and autoplay list, rip same formates (minus AAC and WMA), burn and all that stuff. It does some thing just a heck of a lot better than iTunes. The big feature that it does better is its rating system. In iTunes the users has to manually rate all his/her/its songs while in WMP10 the program will automaticly rate the songs for you based on play count, how offen it is played, Do you skip over it, how long it been in the libary (so not to give old songs an advatage), This along wiht the manual rating which overrides all the auto settings on the songs. The Auto rating can go up and down. The thing big thing that keeps me using iTunes is the dynimic searching it can do.

As for linking up with an MP3 player from what I have seen WMP holds a ton of promise there. It has many of the same controls one does in iTunes. It does not have the lock out of any song on the player can not be pulled back to the computer (easy to get around on the iPod but that not the point). It has the auto syncing iTunes has and the updating iTunes. It does not have the lock down to only one computer. Also WMP will auto convert file types to what the differnt players can use. Also it will allow the user to deside if it wants to let the computer deside the best quility for the player and it will auto convert to that, or one can give it a setting and it will handle the convetering of the file type. I remember this being something people wanted to add to iTunes. People can choose to take the lossless set up on there computer and have like 128bit mp3s for the iPod. Be something nice to add for iTunes. I know I would like it since it would allow me to get a lot more music on my iPod.

Some it all up WMP set up shows a lot of promise and I really wondering what WMP 11 will bring to the table. The improvement bettween 9 and 10 was huge and good. WMP 9 had a lot of things that held a lot of promise and then 10 completed that and brought a few more things that hold a lot of promise in them. And from what I been reading the jump to 11 will be really good and complete those things. The store looks intersting. M$ itself is not making a music store but instead it will allow you to browse several music stores from in WMP. And before people call fowl on that, it may be the only way to compete agaist the Gaint known as the iTMS. Some ideas are copies from iTunes and it bring in a lot more ideas that just look really nice and many of them I wish iTunes would add in.

As a whole right now I like iTunes/iPod set up a lot more but what M$ is doing does look really promising and does look like it will turn out pretty well. Also with apple going over to intel they may port over WMP 10. Mind you most mac users will not touch it since many people just dont like M$ and dont want to touch there stuff who are apple users but that does not remove the promise it bring to the table.

 

[macdong]

I would like to see a non-proprietary format for files that work across all players. That's too much to hope for, though. I've been burning a lot of my CDs onto iTunes lately, and only now noticed that the tracks are formatted into AAC instead of regular old MP3. My only problem is that I like to make compilation CDs and some of the car stereos only support .wma. Now I'm not sure if burning all my CDs to iTunes is that important, although I do plan on streaming music through an express to my stereo.

I get a kick out of seeing the little "Works for Sure" icon next to the microsoft supported MP3 players in the Best Buy flyer. Works for sure my ***. 😀

just buy one of those car cassette adapter and make use of your iPod.
that's how i get through everyday with my '93 Camry.

 

[Porchland]

Way to reassure your shareholders, Bill. "Hot new products" in the "next few years"? Wonderful! Can't wait for Xmas 2010!

Next couple of years? Yeah, I thought the same thing. Apple brought the iPod from cocktail napkin to market in a year and churns out major OS refreshes at twice the speed of Microsoft.

Bill Gates got smoked by Apple on the iPod, and I'm glad to finally see him admitting it so openly.

 

[(L)]

Creative almost did not make any money last time the went public with the earnings, the also reason teh did is becuz someone gave the 10Million. Apple went through with with Mac OS, and MS help them out, but i don't Apple will be help creative!

The Mp3 was is different then the OS war is, the OS war is old, and people already Windows. The Mp3 war is new, and MS does not have an bonus other then lots of Cash but they would probley end up losing Money(like the xBox!)

OK...I assume you are translating from a native language or something, so don't take this as picking on your grammar, but one phrase I couldn't have said better - "people already Windows." That's the problem in the OS War.

The way I look at it, is that business hasn't got to do with whether or not people have a chance to compete. It's whether or not they're product is good enough to offer competition, if all it does is sell to people happy to buy mediocre products. In that respect, MS may have a chance if they release something with any merit at all. This hype about some vaporware mp3 player doesn't earn them real cash though.

 

[macdong]

Oops. Apple has always more iPod stuff in the works. Just wait and see. Apple doesn't rest on its laurels.

MP3 is old technology and why Mr. Bill wants to do MP3 players is completely brain dead, just like people that buy MP3 players instead of iPods. 🙂

Actually, Mr. Bill should get in the business of giving his money away to people that would actually put it to good use.

Close Shop Mr. Bill, you're done. Put a fork in him. 🙂

it's Gates!! Mr. Gates!! Mr. Bill Gates!! Gates i tell ya!!

he finally lost it under the pressure of iPod 😀

 

[Fukui]

What some of Apple's competitors don't seem to realize, is that they're in a race against the clock. The longer Apple continues selling songs via iTMS, the more they cement their position as the market leader.

Especially where there is a billion AAC songs out there. Looks bad for WMA. And its only accelerating.........

 

[jbernie]

No they won't, because Apple's "killer feature Y" is the combination of great software and gorgeous, functional hardware...

That is todays killer feature.

Just as a way out example, if on Tuesday, Microsoft was to release a video/audio player, that had a 20 hour battery life for video playback and longer for audio only and they somehow found a way to import your current iTunes libraries etc etc, and sold it at say $350 per player (they have money to burn so an initial loss is ok)..it looked cool, it interected seemlessly etc etc etc...

The market will shift by wednesday, iPods are like cell phones, and hey they are cell phones too these days, its a fashion accessory, loaded with all sorts of features and colors etc. Back in the late 80's early 90's cell phones were a business tool only, for posers (stock brokers n yuppies) or execs, they were generally either black of grey, they were big hulking heavy bricks. Style factor of zero. Now they are all about style and having your latest phone seen in the hands of the hottest celebs.

Music players are at the same level, if it was all about function the players would be different. it has always been a PITA reentering phone numbers into new cell phones, but we all do it, although with GSM we have a memory card of sorts that will help.

The killer of the iPods dominance will be something even trendier, and given how people are with needing the latest greatest, an app that can import music.

Right now i don't see the market changing, but hindsight is 20/20, i'm sure all the analysts can pin point the first time the Sony engine missed a beat and their portable electronics division went south some time later.

Of course, Apple could become the portable media player 800lb gorilla equivalent that Microsoft is in the OS market. We just have to wait 20-25 years to see what happens.

 

[Timepass]

That is todays killer feature.

Just as a way out example, if on Tuesday, Microsoft was to release a video/audio player, that had a 20 hour battery life for video playback and longer for audio only and they somehow found a way to import your current iTunes libraries etc etc, and sold it at say $350 per player (they have money to burn so an initial loss is ok)..it looked cool, it interected seemlessly etc etc etc...

Well imporanting the iTune libary is pretty easy to do. heck really easy to do. Since it can read the files just as easily as itunes. Now the real trick would be media player also importing in iTunes play list. Something I dont think would be that hard to do and it legal to do. It just requiring it to read one of 2 files and sort though that data. I wouldnt be surpised to see something like that happen. Also would not be surpised in the least to see iTune soon being able to read WMP play list and importing them as well. Nice features I wish both sides would put in there players. I do see the M$ solution becoming a very valid competor to iPod/iTunes. Have to give them props because they relezing the only way to break the power of iPod/iTunes it to work with other companies. They handle the hardware that is at the iPod lv or better and they cover the software that is as good as iTunes. This being the like better is all personally preferances.

 

[NicP]

Is there really people out there who use anything else than iTunes, even on Windows? 😕

iTunes isnt really that great, i'd be using something else if i had a better option. (waiting for songbird to be avaliable on mac!)

There is no gapless playback (dont tell me to turn crossfade to 0 because that is NOT gapless), pretty average format support (I want FLAC and ogg), the mp3 encoder is crap compared to lame, assigning multiple tags (of the same type) to a file isnt possible, and i'd never buy from iTMS because of the DRM

 

[Jetson]

just buy one of those car cassette adapter and make use of your iPod.
that's how i get through everyday with my '93 Camry.

I've tried using the cassette adapter for my iPod and have been somewhat dissatisfied with the results.

The iPod has a frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz range which is excellent.

Most auto cassette players have rather poor frequency response and signal to noise ratios. For example some models on the market today perform as poorly as: tape frequency response 50-8,000 Hz, tape signal-to-noise ratio 52 dB. The better tape players have a 30-18,000 Hz frequency response.

The result is that the bass is not as deep and strong as expected and there's not enough headroom for treble so the sound is muddy and not clear.

Also there can be mechanical problems with the tape tracking, so that you might not get the full volume from one channel.

The cassette adapter method does not deliver the kind of performance that your iPod is capable of.

Many new head units have an analog stereo input jack which eliminates this problem altogether, but these jacks are not yet a standard feature.

 

[sam10685]

there's no way in hell that microsoft will ever make anything that is even remotely comparable to anything Apple makes/will ever make.

 

[coffey7]

fix battery problem first

I love my nano ipod, but I am shocked to see my battery only lasting 2 hours. If it lasted longer then I would trash talk other products.
Of course I never have the volume full blast and I've only charged it 5 times. The first few times I used it the battery lasted over 4 hours.

 

[SiliconAddict]

That means we'll have to match all that good work and do something even better.

I'm confused. How can Microsoft and their OEM's do something better when Apple hasn't come up with something better to copy yet? 😕 Billy Boy has been touting this comment for close to two years now with no result. Short of taking a more active hands on approach for the hardware nothing will change. And as for the software it is well documented that Microsoft doesn't know **** when it comes to interface design. MP10 has some interesting features but that is it. Features.

 

[Koree]

Competition = Good

 

[JFreak]

Microsoft has NEVER made any hardware that was any good.

You have to admit their keyboards and mice are pretty good. Actually, their natural keyboard is THE best keyboard ever made, typing-wise. It's just perfect match for one's fingers. And before Apple introduced the mighty mouse, Microsoft's was the best I could think of.

if I were Microsoft, I would go into another direction.

I guarantee that if you were Microsoft, you would gladly continue taking profit from wherever they may come. It's easy to say what to do when you don't have a penny invested...

Vista is going to be so far behind OS X, they should just start making bug free OS X applicaitions. They would be a much better company is they did.

In case you missed that, Microsoft HAS STARTED to make better software. It's just that they have done it wrong so long that it will take some time to make it right. I'm just as frustrated about their products as anyone, but given that Windows 2003 Server is "pretty good" (for microsoft), I might just let them prove themselves to me and not judge work in progress.

Back to topic; did anyone watch olympic snowboarding? Almost everyone had an ipod. What an ad!

 

[barstard]

Right

Creative almost did not make any money last time the went public with the earnings, the also reason teh did is becuz someone gave the 10Million. Apple went through with with Mac OS, and MS help them out, but i don't Apple will be help creative!

The Mp3 was is different then the OS war is, the OS war is old, and people already Windows. The Mp3 war is new, and MS does not have an bonus other then lots of Cash but they would probley end up losing Money(like the xBox!)

OK then. So you... What?😱

Though it is true that the iPod killer is just around the corner, it could quite possibly be Apple who comes up with it. Evolve or lose.

BTW Hi everyone. This is my first post... well, for a long time anyway. I have been reading these rumors for years and love the banter in these forums. Hopefully I'll post a bit more often. And sorry to zap2 for having a go at you, but that post was BARELY comprehensible.🙂

 

[d_and_n5000]

There are retards who hate iTunes/iPod. I always ask them why and they just continue their rant....


/doesn't get it either

Heh. My cousin's like that. My iPod wouldn't work, so I took it to his house to try to install iTunes/iPod software to see if it installs on his computer. We managed to get to an iPod conversation because iTunes was version 4.0 on his computer, too old for the nano, and i mentioned it. He said they never used it because it sucked. I asked him why, I don't remember his reason, it just sucked. Said the same thing about OS X. Creative type stuff was OK, but he tried doing a paper on Word for mac, he hated it. Then he went on and on on how OS X was just Steve's version of Unix, just like XP was Bill's version of Unix....Kinda get's on your nerves. (o'course, what I wanna know is why he allowed his family to buy his mother an iPod for Christmas in 2004, when the software is so horrible😉)

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Microsoft putting another inferior product in the marketplace 🙄

But competing against a product that has a massed critical mass, thats dumb even for Microsoft, I really think this time they have well and truely missed the MP3 ship by a few years.

The ONLY people this potential product will appeal to is the PC loving iPod/iTunes bashing bunch, in other words the usual retards who hate Apple with ABSOLUTELY no viable arguement.

 

[iGary]

Apple is pretty unstoppable in the portable music market at this point.

Until someone comes up with:

1. A more functional, nicer looking MP3 player lineup with better functionality.
2. A better jukebox.
3. A better store.

They will fail.

I was in the Annapolis Apple Store yesterday (picking up my new iSight 😀 ), and people were just swarming the iPod counters - and remember, we got a foot of snow here yesterday. The store was packed.

Unbeliveable, really.

 

[xejn]

Gates promised...some pretty hot products coming out over the next couple of years.

<<Gates promised that we can expect "some pretty hot products coming out over the next couple of years.>>

This is MicroSoft's never-ending talking point. Windows users are forever waiting for the "hot procts" or the actually "secure" version that never ever shows up. This gives MS the unbeleivable opportunity to keep trying over and over to get it right, with users who are trained like pavlovian dogs to line up in droves at stores to by the new super solution only to be disappointed yet again.

Why don't user and the media--at the least the tech media--ever learn. I only watch this constant cycle of constantly unrealized promises only when it is put in front of me (makes the mainstream media or ends up in the Mac media), and I am getting sick and tired of seeing it.

BTW--I am also sick of seeing Apple switch to the next great CPU vendor who will bring greatness to the platform and then has "production constraints". It happened with Moto, it happened with IBM, if Apple claims it happens with Intel...I will call bull, and wonder how much of the other instances where a load of bull too. I do not understand how IBM had such a problem with chips for Apple, but no trouble supplying all those chips for Xbox and soon all of the other game box makers (FYI--the Cell chip is going into servers).