Microsoft: we'll sell music players that are better than the iPod

Stridder44

Stridder44

Universal Traveler
The idiots at Micro$haft are planning on taking over the portable music player industry (what a suprise) with something that " will 'look and feel' as good as an Apple iPod for 80% less." Check out this BS here.

Now we all know that this is balonie (spelled wrong) and that this will never happen. Sure they'll make a player, and it will be cheaper than a free donut, but they will never make a player that'll be as good as an iPod. It seems all they care about is simply dominating the market(s). They have more money than God, so they can take a loss and gain later (i.e.; the Xbox)...we shall see tho...
 
Baloney. You just know MS will make an inordinate amount of money selling a p...poor product to people who don't know better. And I'd say the "As little as $50" players will be WMA players locked to only play music purchased through DRM from Microsoft's store, in order to enable them to sell below cost.
 
symphonix said:
Baloney. You just know MS will make an inordinate amount of money selling a p...poor product to people who don't know better. And I'd say the "As little as $50" players will be WMA players locked to only play music purchased through DRM from Microsoft's store, in order to enable them to sell below cost.
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First off, if M$ sells digital music players for $50, it will not make an inordinate amount of money. It will lose an inordinate amount of money. Consider this: Apple's iPod retails for about the same price as the bare hard disk inside. It makes no business sense for Apple to sell iPods at a lower price. It also makes no sense for others to sell similar players for less than Apple's prices. At $50 a pop, many surmise that M$'s players will store music on low-capacity flash-drives. Think about how many songs you can store on $50 worth of storage. Now try not to laugh.

For all the weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth, what many forget is that Microsoft doesn't own the content. There are rumblings that the record companies want Apple to increase its prices on the iTMS. They certainly are not going to allow Microsoft to undercut Apple's prices. Microsoft's real problem is not the record companies, it's the artists. The artists don't like Microsoft ... a lot. The Mac, on the other hand, is integral to the production of their music. Microsoft did not achieve its illegal monopoly status by magic. It worked hard to leverage every advantage that came its way. However, M$ has no advantage in digital music.
 
It's like the sig in SimX's profile, the first hit of heroin is free. In this case, smack=WMA.
 
Apple actually makes a currenty margin on its iPod's from between 23-27%. They have room to play with, and they even acknowledged that the prices will have to come down once HP begins selling the player. Reason? HP will sell the iPod at a lower margin (sub 20%).
 
Well let's hope they can make it a little smaller than the XBox. Have you seen the size of that thing? You'd need to build an extra room just to store it!
 
Could this tie in with the famous rumour going around previously of the music-player that plugs directly into your X-Box 2 for use as its HDD?

If SO, I'd be more than a LITTLE worried. The X-Box 2 will sell like HOTCAKES. People will want a HDD, and they'll end up getting a music player aswell. Why wouldn't they want that?

And also, if that IS the case, expect it to be a REAL HDD, and to be amazingly underpriced. Unlike the X-Box, I see the XB2 being the opposite pricewise, expensive console, cheap peripherals, at least to begin with.
 
Well, let's just wait and see. Maybe Apple has something up their sleeves as well. I don't expect Apple to release a player THIS cheap, but being the market leader in digital music players, they of course HAVE to expect someone to undercut their prices. And, of course, they _should_ have a strategy. One could be to just implement WMA, too (although I wouldn't want them to do that). One could be to create an iPod for beginners that is competitively priced. ... We'll see...
 
Surely it makes no odds if MicroSoft release a cheaper player, it happens all the time. Something innovative is produced and a short while later something cheaper appears. The biggest things the iPod & Apple have going for them with the iPod are the design and the 'name'. The Playstation was bettered in many respects by both Nintendo & MicroSoft, larger hard-drives, better sound etc, but by that point the name 'Playstation' had become larger than the device. There is a certain respect that the iPod will always have and it'll be a damn site 'cooler' to own an iPod than a MS 'Xpod' or whatever the hell it'll be called. Besides, I'd love to see MicroSoft come out with anything near as excellent in terms of design as the iPod. JI & his team are still the undisputed masters.
 
Yup. We also have to see that it's almost incredible how the iPod wasn't undercut earlier! There's still nothing out there which has the appeal of the iPod. However, the iPod is very, very closely connected to the iTunes Music Store, and if one of them _really_ fails, so might the other. Sure, you can use each thing without the other, but it's the combination, baby. And two years from now, I don't think anyone would consider buying a digital music player without a good/cheap online music service that goes well with it.

But I don't fear that Apple will fail here. They've got a winner in their hands - and they're doing everything they can to keep it that way.
 
Uh...the iPod isn't tied that tightly to the iTMS. I believe it'd survive fine if the iTMS died. Heck, I bought the iPod when it first came out, and there weren't even rumors of the iTMS then.

Heh, I also haven't ever used the iTMS. :p

I can't really say if the iTMS is tied to the iPod or not, though. Haven't ever really thought about that one.
 
There certainly isn't a tie between the iPod and the music store in Europe! Just as an aside, having looked through the US iTMS and found it very low on artists like Orbital, how often are tracks & albums added?
 
gigapet said:
There certainly isn't a tie between the iPod and the music store in Europe! Just as an aside, having looked through the US iTMS and found it very low on artists like Orbital, how often are tracks & albums added?
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The iTMS announces new music every week, including new artists. The Europe situation is interesting. Microsoft's announcement is essentially a bold announcement that it will flaunt antitrust law by leveraging its illegal monopoly in operating systems to expand its presence into digital music. The EU is really serious about enforcing antitrust. I don't see it allowing Microsoft to follow through on its treat in Europe.
 
Microspew has long been trying to establish subscription-based services to improve their cash-flow (like MSN and XBox-Live). Wanna bet they're new on-line music service has a "small" monthly subscription fee? That's why they'd be willing to take a hit on selling their players. Lots of people will probably buy them, but those are the types who wouldn't shell-out $250 for an iPod anyway.

There seems to be quite a few companies now working on "iPod-killers", and some may actually produce competetive products, but I doubt they'll catch-up in the long run. By the time new products are released, targeting the current iPod line, Apple will be well on their way to releasing the next generation (I hope).
 
Thanks for this reference. It cleared-up alot of the fog, but it also was pretty clear about use of the subscription model as opposed to the iTMS ownership model. Sounds like there will be some pretty nice new players on the market soon, but you'll need an on-going MSN subscription to really use them. Some people prefer this model, so they can continuously get new content whenver they want, but I still prefer the ownership model myself.

mrfluffy said:
the mac observer has a report on what the M$ guy really said

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/05/28.3.shtml
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