An interesting discussion got started by Robert Scoble on how Microsoft could seriously compete with the iPod (good answer by Brandon Paddoc too).

There are the same differences between Microsoft and Apple as in the computer business. In both the music player and the computer world, Apple has the advantage of doing the platform and selling the devices, and thus can provide a better experience since they have control over everything. On the other hand Microsoft develops a platform that is used by others to build products. Providing a seamless experience is more difficult, but there isn’t the same level of lock-in as with Apple.

I have been writing before that Apple needs to do an iPod with the phone feature. But wait, Microsoft is in a better position for doing this! They already have all the software for it with Windows Mobile and the Portable Media Player. And with phones, they start doing it right as seen with the “Scoble phone”.

So what are they waiting? Ah, Microsoft doesn’t build the final device… Not true actually, see the Xbox. They would have never got any success in the gaming console business if they had just handed the Xbox software to manufacturers and told them “please build us cool consoles”.

My letter to Bill Gates would therefore be:

Use the phone advantage to beat the iPod. Integrate the Portable Media Player functionality into Windows Mobile (maybe it’s already the case?) and get HTC (maker of the Scoble phone) to build a phone with a hard drive. Marketing such a device shouldn’t be that difficult, just listen to bloggers

This entry was posted on Monday, December 20th, 2004 at 12:49 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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