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Gates: We will continue to challenge iPod

13 February 2006 14:16 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 18 comments

According to Bill Gates, Microsoft and its partners in digital media will continue to develop products aimed at dethroning Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player. He made his comments speaking to a group of minority students. "I don't think what's out on the market today is the final answer," he said. "Between us and our partners, you can expect some pretty hot products coming out over the next few years." He did however decide to bite the bullet and praise Apple's iTunes music store.

Praise isn't enough to stop him from thinking about competition of course. He said Microsoft and its partners will focus on creating devices that are less expensive and easier to connect and can handle pictures and video better. He said that the share of portable players compatible with Microsoft software is about 20%, a figure he admits he's unhappy with.

Microsoft has just sat back and watched companies make devices that are compatible with it software and then promoted them as being better for consumers. According to an article in BusinessWeek, Microsoft is mulling its own media device in an effort to cut into Apple's nearly 70% U.S. market share. Gates declined to comment on the article however.

Source:
News.com

Permalink to this article

Microsoft's Zune set to challenge iPod (22 July 2006)

DVD-length music videos at iTunes (27 March 2006)

CloneDVD Mobile guide for iPod video added (10 February 2006)

Apple sued over iPod Nano replacement fees (10 February 2006)

iPod video conversion guide added (9 February 2006)

iPod chip maker to add WiFi & Bluetooth support (8 February 2006)

Apple launches 1GB iPod Nano - slashes Shuffle prices (7 February 2006)

Apple sued over iPod audio volume levels (3 February 2006)

iPod success drives traffic to iTunes (23 January 2006)

iPod continues to dominate (15 January 2006)

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Discuss this article!
Rikoshay (Member) 13 February 2006 19:30
Hmm... Don't you think it's a little late in the game, Bill? I doubt there's much profit to be gained in trying now. [ + quote]
Ofnir1 (Senior Member) 13 February 2006 21:28
Yeah especially with the "console war" going on right now lol. [ + quote]
wonderboy (Inactive) 13 February 2006 23:06
WOW you guys really don't know Bill do you, he will just open another division just for selling portable Media Devices..and they will sell them cheaper and able to be hooked up to the X-baox 360,etc,etc. [ + quote]
wonderboy (Inactive) 13 February 2006 23:07
WOW you guys really don't know Bill do you, he will just open another division just for selling portable Media Devices..and they will sell them cheaper and able to be hooked up to the X-box 360,etc,etc. [ + quote]
Jauzzi (Member) 14 February 2006 3:24
great, that's what the world needs... a new mp3 player running windows... [ + quote]
lannigan (Member) 14 February 2006 3:46
Hes just plain greedy.... great idea bill, spread the company so thin trying to compete with ipod.... Never bill, the ipods are just too damn cool.... and work great... [ + quote]
weazel200 (AfterDawn Addict) 14 February 2006 8:30
I doubt he will be able to out do Apple. 70% of the market is a hell of alot. And WMA is a crap format. He will have to build on MP3 or even FLAC. [ + quote]
vegeta66 (Inactive) 14 February 2006 8:52
(by the way i'll make this clear i hate microsoft but i'm stuck with it until a better os comes out) why doesnt bill just make the new os(vista) not compatible with ipods most people own windows systems that would tremendously piss people off but he'd almost kill ipod!!!!!!!!!!! P2P UNITED [ + quote]
serpiroth (Member) 14 February 2006 9:00
Microsoft has killed the compitition. They are so advanced in this feild the other comonies will take about a year to start makeing things clsoe to ipods. Ipods are fine if you no how to work with them. On the bright side by the time some other compony comes out with something to chalange ipod we sould all no how to use it. The only bad side is that everyone has one. It is kinda repetitive. "What MP3 player do you have?" But the only thing that justifies have the same MP3 player is that all the others suck worse then ipod. [ + quote]
Lethal_B (Moderator) 14 February 2006 9:07
@weazel. How much music could you peddle on an mp3 player in .flac format? They should take a gamble & make a player that supports the .ogg vorbis format. They may be pleasantly suprised. I bet those who appreciate good quality would buy it.. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14 February 2006 11:11
esrever (Member) 14 February 2006 10:43
[q] (by the way i'll make this clear i hate microsoft but i'm stuck with it until a better os comes out)[/q] You mean like just about every other OS out there? [ + quote]
vegeta66 (Inactive) 14 February 2006 10:50
i hate mac i like linux but i dont like thats it open-source so i dont use it [ + quote]
rihgt682 (Senior Member) 14 February 2006 13:38
Quote: why doesnt bill just make the new os(vista) not compatible with ipods That is a great idea!!! If i was bill i would have done that. but there would be a lot of lawsuits. [ + quote]
zimer (Junior Member) 17 February 2006 18:35
Isn't this always the case. FOLLOWER. After Apple's success that changed the Music Industry and how consumers pay and listen. Bill with all his billions could have tried this way before Apple came up with their Technology.Ofcourse Microsoft now after the fact. Bill is also working on Blackberry's success in N.America too. Bill, you can't have it all??? Competition is always good for the consumers but copying someones invention, destroy will Microsoft Millions, #!##& Zimer [ + quote]
hap99 (Inactive) 17 February 2006 21:23
(by the way i'll make this clear i hate microsoft but i'm stuck with it until a better os comes out) Try SimplyMepis...I know you hate Linux due to the open source situation, but, it is a lot more stable, and very few viruses. And those intrusive situations are stopped immediately. SimplyMepis looks and feels like a Windows OS, and has better programs built into it. I am having a great time "backing up" my DVD's and surfing the net with it, among other things. [ + quote]
Ofnir1 (Senior Member) 18 February 2006 0:25
SimplyMepis... where can ya get it? That sounds good already. <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/Kagemusha486/Su-37.jpg" border=0> PlayStation 2 [version 7], DMS4 Pro, ToxicBIOS 1.4w/ ToxicOS 0.4, 80GB HDD Ultimate newbie guide for the PS2: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/252193 Extracting music from a PS2 game: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/269197 PS2 game music that can be extracted with adxutil: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/287086 List: Games that do or do not need special steps: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/162734 NTSC DNA$ Codes: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/198137 Best DVD media to burn with: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/240341 PC to PS2 via LAN: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/122897 [ + quote]
hap99 (Inactive) 19 February 2006 18:10
Go to http://shots.osdir.com/index.php?page=lbslideshows to download SimplyMepis, and you can also look at and download other Linux OS's and programs from there. Just choose the right one for you. You can also see the screenshots. You will need to download the ISO file or files onto your system and burn to a cd or cd's. Once they are on the cd, boot your system from cd and go from there. I hope it works for you. I use Burn4Free to burn the ISO's. hap99 [ + quote]
Ofnir1 (Senior Member) 19 February 2006 19:59
Thanks hap99, I get President's Day off tomorrow, so I'll try that out. <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/Kagemusha486/Su-37.jpg" border=0> PlayStation 2 [version 7], DMS4 Pro, ToxicBIOS 1.4w/ ToxicOS 0.4, 80GB HDD Ultimate newbie guide for the PS2: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/252193 Extracting music from a PS2 game: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/269197 PS2 game music that can be extracted with adxutil: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/287086 List: Games that do or do not need special steps: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/162734 NTSC DNA$ Codes: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/198137 Best DVD media to burn with: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/240341 PC to PS2 via LAN: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/122897 [ + quote]