Yvan256 said:
No, I wasn't even discussing what SHOULD BE included. I was discussing what was stated regarding the current situation of consoles and HD. What aren't you understanding?
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Microsoft's Zune - Long Term Effort
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No, I wasn't even discussing what SHOULD BE included. I was discussing what was stated regarding the current situation of consoles and HD. What aren't you understanding?
It seems that nobody ever likes anything successful.. Look at poor mcdonalds,coca cola,Ford and now apple and its ipod.... All the biggest comapanies always get in trouble. BMW and their idrive, ford and the firestone blowouts, apple and hearing loss... while dont people stop being jealous and peee off.
Once again the drones at Microsoft can't come up with anything new so they spend all their money trying to muscle in on something someone else had the vision to create. I hope they fail big time.
By the time M$ get any sort of marketshare Apple will be onto something new and innovative that that Big Bill will have to throw even more $$$ down the drain to catch up.
Jobs must be laughing his A*** off, he's forced M$ to create something that's going to lose them money, whilst Apple turns a tidy profit on each iPod sold!
By the time M$ get any sort of marketshare Apple will be onto something new and innovative that that Big Bill will have to throw even more $$$ down the drain to catch up.
Jobs must be laughing his A*** off, he's forced M$ to create something that's going to lose them money, whilst Apple turns a tidy profit on each iPod sold!
Chris Bangle said:
Ford and GM problems are their own fault - they don't produce fuel efficient cards - in north america - other ( non u.s ) manufacturers do - and they are reaping the benefits - whilst oil prices are high.
sconnor99 said:
What, your saying that Apple should have the MP3 market to itself, no one else can try and muscle in - its called competition, and competition is heathly. Apple entered the MP3 market when people thought it was already saturated... this is a case of double standards, in afraid. :-\
iTunes, iPod, Music Store, TV Shows, etc.....
Apple's efforts have been just as long term as Microsoft's. Apple just seems more segmented because they don't disclose info ahead of time. Apple had the advantage of being the first with all of these.
Microsoft has no choice, they have to announce we will be able to do this stuff or nobody will listen. In reality, all of these endeavors require a long term effort because you need partners to really entrench the product.
The iPod is special because you have thousands of companies and products that have brought it so deep, people can't get out.
Switch from iPod, you Beemer can't play your new MP3 Player
Switch from iPod, all your other accessories become obsolete.
Microsoft must follow this path or the Zune will never have an effect. Unless they focus on a 5 year or 7 year plan with this product, it will flop for sure.
Apple's efforts have been just as long term as Microsoft's. Apple just seems more segmented because they don't disclose info ahead of time. Apple had the advantage of being the first with all of these.
Microsoft has no choice, they have to announce we will be able to do this stuff or nobody will listen. In reality, all of these endeavors require a long term effort because you need partners to really entrench the product.
The iPod is special because you have thousands of companies and products that have brought it so deep, people can't get out.
Switch from iPod, you Beemer can't play your new MP3 Player
Switch from iPod, all your other accessories become obsolete.
Microsoft must follow this path or the Zune will never have an effect. Unless they focus on a 5 year or 7 year plan with this product, it will flop for sure.
Well that certainly isn't what Microsoft is about...
All of a sudden they're going to be innovative? What the hell? It's going to be a combination of every player on the market but you can probably plug it into your XBox to have it charge.
I hope it costs like a thousand dollars.
Chris Bangle said:
I think, if big companies or successful products are being "attacked" it's because a lot of people are using their products and at a certain point those companies have to have a much bigger responsibility towards the enduser.
Because as more people are using the iPod as more people are in danger using it the wrong way and suffer from hearing loss.
Of course a lot of people sue big companies just for the sake of money and in North America the whole thing got out of hand, but I believe, that big companies have to make sure that people don't get hurt because of their products.
-> Bigger influence of a product means way more responsibility for the company, because the chances, that the product hurts someone, raises.
poor McDonald's, poor Coca Cola, yeah, right! We don't want discuss this topic.
(sorry if my english is kinda bad, just got back to england)
playaj82 said:
In think the main point of view of many people here is that when Microsoft makes long-term plans, it's because they're planning to drive the competition to the ground with the help of a big pile of cash instead of innovation and good products.
The fact that they started this whole new thing by dropping their own PlaysForSure DRM isn't a good indicator (for the users AND commercial partners - they have to switch hardware again).
Apple, on the other hand, has switched three times (68K->PPC, OS 9->OS X, PPC->Intel) and has always tried to keep compatibility with the previous system. A first generation iPod can play iTMS-bought tunes, too (unless I'm mistaken).
Yvan256 said:
No sweat.
Personally, I'd hope that the new gaming consoles--read PS3--would offer some DIVX playback too. I have a Samsung HT-q70 that upscales to 1080i over HDMI and it has a USB port on the front that allows you to plug an external drive into it and it plays VCD, DVD, DIVX, MPEG 2 & 4. That would be a nice simple feature that can be added to these consoles that would make them more useful as a media center.
B
bigmc6000 said:
360's main advantage is that it's the only console of the three to release the next generation version. They have a year's head start on the other two.
They're still losing money on the 360, but component costs will drop until they are making a profit on boxes. Don't forget, ALL consoles lose money when they first ship. With the original xbox, they never really caught up, but it looks like they will this time around. And with the PS3 shipping at an even higher price, there's less pressure for them to drop prices. As much money as MS has been losing, Sony stands to lose much more. If Sony doesn't get their act together, I could see MS and Nintendo driving Sony out of the video game business.
jaxstate said:
That's the goal, but so far they have yet to get out of the red on xbox and 360. And "ish"? You seriously just said that?
kevin.rivers said:
It does play GAMES at HD resolutions, right? The original post never said it plays HD dvd's.
Yvan256 said:
I tend to agree with you, but that is just business, and Microsoft is good at it.
If we want to point fingers, point them at the consumers.
The only reason Microsoft still pours money into things is because people will still buy their products.
Competition is just as much about monopoly as it is about necessity. People could say that Apple is using their marketshare to push around accessory makers and by emphasizing their "Made for iPod" label to rake in some extra cash solely because of their position.
Microsoft also uses their position of having a large amount of disposable cash. If their product sucks, people won't buy it, and Microsoft suffers.
Wooooow, we're straying off topic.
Back to the topic...
Don't you guys think that the iPod being overtaken is about as likely as Apple overtaking HP, Dell, and Gateway?
I just don't see it happening, Apple has a really high following when it comes to mp3 players and when people have had an iPod, they upgrade to a new iPod, not a Zune.
Back to the topic...
Don't you guys think that the iPod being overtaken is about as likely as Apple overtaking HP, Dell, and Gateway?
I just don't see it happening, Apple has a really high following when it comes to mp3 players and when people have had an iPod, they upgrade to a new iPod, not a Zune.
I wonder if they have appropriated another $4 BILLION to blow in an effort to overtake a market leader a la XBox...
Buschmaster said:
There is no incentive to go to a Zune. Same DRM, same features. The people who hate the iPod and buy Creative aren't switching to Zune. They don't want to be locked into DRM. So unless microsoft really does something innovative it is just another player in a sea of non-iPods.
EDIT: I mean same DRM in the sense that the download are locked by DRM, not exactly the same type.
Boy I should just have this argument saved and repeat it.
No they are still not making money....From a Forbes article 2005/09/12..
linkypoo
"The Xbox game console is hot, but its division has lost $4 billion in four years and isn't yet in the black."
And as for the success of the XBox 360 from bink.nu (july 23)
bink link
"Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division, home to the Xbox, posted a hefty fiscal year loss of $1.26 billion, thanks largely to losses involved with the Xbox 360. For Microsoft's fourth quarter, losses in the Home and Entertainment division were $414 million. Microsoft says they have shipped 5 million Xbox 360 units worldwide as of the end of June, roughly seven and a half months after launch."
Having said that I do own a Xbox, and will probably buy an Xbox 360 when Halo 3 comes out. And a PS3. And a Wii.
The fact is the Xbox 360 really isn't sellilng that well outside the US, where it has sold 3.3 mil units, in Europe it has sold only 1.3 mil, and more embarrasingly only 0.4 mil in the rest of the world INCLUDING Japan. In fact for the week ending 16th July only 1105 Xbox 360s were sold in Japan, compared to 140,858 DS LItes, and less than one tenth of the sales of the DS phat and less than one twentieth of the PS2, during the same time.
Microsofts home and entertainment division just lost $414million in the last quarter!
I just don't think you should say that the Xbox has been a success, it is possible, however success is a long way off.
-Red 2.
jaxstate said:
No they are still not making money....From a Forbes article 2005/09/12..
linkypoo
"The Xbox game console is hot, but its division has lost $4 billion in four years and isn't yet in the black."
And as for the success of the XBox 360 from bink.nu (july 23)
bink link
"Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division, home to the Xbox, posted a hefty fiscal year loss of $1.26 billion, thanks largely to losses involved with the Xbox 360. For Microsoft's fourth quarter, losses in the Home and Entertainment division were $414 million. Microsoft says they have shipped 5 million Xbox 360 units worldwide as of the end of June, roughly seven and a half months after launch."
Having said that I do own a Xbox, and will probably buy an Xbox 360 when Halo 3 comes out. And a PS3. And a Wii.
The fact is the Xbox 360 really isn't sellilng that well outside the US, where it has sold 3.3 mil units, in Europe it has sold only 1.3 mil, and more embarrasingly only 0.4 mil in the rest of the world INCLUDING Japan. In fact for the week ending 16th July only 1105 Xbox 360s were sold in Japan, compared to 140,858 DS LItes, and less than one tenth of the sales of the DS phat and less than one twentieth of the PS2, during the same time.
Microsofts home and entertainment division just lost $414million in the last quarter!
I just don't think you should say that the Xbox has been a success, it is possible, however success is a long way off.
-Red 2.
kevin.rivers said:
That's a good point. I think people are happy with what's available to them and I'm not so sure that an all-encompassing portable media device is ncessary. I've had 4g ipod for a couple of years now. Use it at the gym and when mowing the lawn. I don't think I'm the typical iPod user, but how much portable entertainment is too much? I always thought Walkmen and iPods were a little antisocial, people tend to shut themselves in. I think MS would be better off creating the next media paradigm.
B