Bill Gates: Cellphone will beat iPod
Bill Gates: Cellphone will beat iPod
Microsoft chairman tells German newspaper that Apple's nifty little gizmo can't sustain itself.
May 12, 2005: 3:24 PM EDT
Will Apple have to turn its iPod technology into cellphone technology?
For more on digital music
• Karmazin chases a Sirius dream
• The download wars
• Out-of-tune music stocks
Discount Apple iPod MP3 Players at Sears
Guaranteed low prices on a wide selection of MP3 players - iPods, Sony, Samsung...
www.sears.com
Apple iPod MP3 Player
Shop for an Apple iPod MP3 player from 600+ merchants with one cart. Thousands...
amos.shop.com
Apple Ipod Mp3 Players at Shopping.com
Find, compare and buy products in categories ranging from MP3 and Digital Media...
www.shopping.com
Join Audible and Save $100 on MP3 Player
Download digital audio books, radio programs, audio magazines and newspapers to...
www.audible.com
Video More video
CNN's Richard Quest talks to Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates about the changing landscape of mobile phones and the role his company aims to play in the industry.
Play video
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Microsoft founder Bill Gates sees mobile phones overtaking MP3s as the top choice of portable music players, and views the raging popularity of Apple's iPod player as unsustainable, he told a German newspaper.
"As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run," he said in an interview published in Thursday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface -- like the iPod today -- and then lost its position," Gates said.
Apple (Research) has around two thirds of the global market for MP3 music players, which store thousands of songs on pocket-sized disk drives or smaller flash memory chips, and sold more than 5 million iPods in the last quarter.
But it faces increasing competition not only from the likes of Sony, whose iconic Walkman dominated the personal audio market for two decades, but also from mobile-phone companies integrating MP3 players into handsets.
Partly in response to pressure from Apple, Microsoft (up $0.11 to $25.02, Research) is now positioning itself to be a key player in the growing market for digital movies, pictures and music and grow beyond its core Windows operating system business.
It is working with partners such as Samsung to provide its Windows Mobile smartphone software to 40 handset makers.
"If you were to ask me which mobile device will take top place for listening to music, I'd bet on the mobile phone for sure," Gates told the newspaper.
In the United States, however, Microsoft smartphones have been overshadowed by Research In Motion's BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, which has sold 3 million so far.
Gates said that Microsoft's rival Windows Mobile 5.0 -- which will let e-mails pop up on a user's phone as soon as they arrive, and which is expected to be running phones on the market in the next few months -- would be cheaper.
"The BlackBerry is great but we're bringing a new approach," he said. "With BlackBerry you need to link to a separate server, and that costs extra. With us, the e-mail function will already be part of the server software."
"Therefore I'd venture the prediction that Microsoft will make wireless e-mail ubiquitous."
He admitted, however, that Microsoft had made mistakes in the past, for example with the first version of its XBox games console.
"The consumer is always unpredictable. In principle, you can only throw products onto the market and then learn from your mistakes," he said.
And the 49-year-old Microsoft chairman said he would not remain with the company for ever.
"I think that when someone is 60 years old he should better leave it to someone else to follow trends in technology. But until then there's still a lot to do," he said.
----------------------------------
Google to acquire text-messaging service DodgeBall. For story, click here.
New Yahoo music service has rivals singing out of tune. For story, click here.
Microsoft chairman tells German newspaper that Apple's nifty little gizmo can't sustain itself.
May 12, 2005: 3:24 PM EDT
Will Apple have to turn its iPod technology into cellphone technology?
For more on digital music
• Karmazin chases a Sirius dream
• The download wars
• Out-of-tune music stocks
Discount Apple iPod MP3 Players at Sears
Guaranteed low prices on a wide selection of MP3 players - iPods, Sony, Samsung...
www.sears.com
Apple iPod MP3 Player
Shop for an Apple iPod MP3 player from 600+ merchants with one cart. Thousands...
amos.shop.com
Apple Ipod Mp3 Players at Shopping.com
Find, compare and buy products in categories ranging from MP3 and Digital Media...
www.shopping.com
Join Audible and Save $100 on MP3 Player
Download digital audio books, radio programs, audio magazines and newspapers to...
www.audible.com
Video More video
CNN's Richard Quest talks to Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates about the changing landscape of mobile phones and the role his company aims to play in the industry.
Play video
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Microsoft founder Bill Gates sees mobile phones overtaking MP3s as the top choice of portable music players, and views the raging popularity of Apple's iPod player as unsustainable, he told a German newspaper.
"As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run," he said in an interview published in Thursday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface -- like the iPod today -- and then lost its position," Gates said.
Apple (Research) has around two thirds of the global market for MP3 music players, which store thousands of songs on pocket-sized disk drives or smaller flash memory chips, and sold more than 5 million iPods in the last quarter.
But it faces increasing competition not only from the likes of Sony, whose iconic Walkman dominated the personal audio market for two decades, but also from mobile-phone companies integrating MP3 players into handsets.
Partly in response to pressure from Apple, Microsoft (up $0.11 to $25.02, Research) is now positioning itself to be a key player in the growing market for digital movies, pictures and music and grow beyond its core Windows operating system business.
It is working with partners such as Samsung to provide its Windows Mobile smartphone software to 40 handset makers.
"If you were to ask me which mobile device will take top place for listening to music, I'd bet on the mobile phone for sure," Gates told the newspaper.
In the United States, however, Microsoft smartphones have been overshadowed by Research In Motion's BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, which has sold 3 million so far.
Gates said that Microsoft's rival Windows Mobile 5.0 -- which will let e-mails pop up on a user's phone as soon as they arrive, and which is expected to be running phones on the market in the next few months -- would be cheaper.
"The BlackBerry is great but we're bringing a new approach," he said. "With BlackBerry you need to link to a separate server, and that costs extra. With us, the e-mail function will already be part of the server software."
"Therefore I'd venture the prediction that Microsoft will make wireless e-mail ubiquitous."
He admitted, however, that Microsoft had made mistakes in the past, for example with the first version of its XBox games console.
"The consumer is always unpredictable. In principle, you can only throw products onto the market and then learn from your mistakes," he said.
And the 49-year-old Microsoft chairman said he would not remain with the company for ever.
"I think that when someone is 60 years old he should better leave it to someone else to follow trends in technology. But until then there's still a lot to do," he said.
----------------------------------
Google to acquire text-messaging service DodgeBall. For story, click here.
New Yahoo music service has rivals singing out of tune. For story, click here.
posted by Public Pod at 11:29 AM
3 Comments:
One good resource for tax software and many more free software alternatives is Software4YourSuccess.com
Yes it is my site and I would love for you to drop by for a second. From there you will have free access to several of my products such as The Marketing Toolbar (which is goldmine of information on how to do things quickly and on the cheap, thus saving you time and money).
Also for webmasters I have created Webmaster Wizards, which will help you with almost every aspect of putting code on your site from things such as legal and privacy disclaimers to popunders. I have so much content and free software there I could fill up this whole blog, so check it out Thanks, Sincerely Rob Rudd
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!
I have a Free Ipod Nano site/blog. It pretty much covers free ipod song related stuff.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
www.getipodsforfree.com has this cool thing where if you just sign up and do an offer, you can get a free ipod
Post a Comment
<< Home