Microsoft Courts Hollywood Allies

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-micro17jul17,1,4460986.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true' target='_blank'>http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-micro17jul17,1,4460986.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true</a><br /><br /></div><i>"When Apple Computer Inc. transformed the digital music scene in April 2003 by selling songs over the Internet, the richest man in the world was not amused. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates had struggled for a decade to get his software into consumers' home entertainment systems. Now the digital media party was finally starting, and he wasn't invited. But the blow gave Gates new insight, motivation and some needed humility — and it intensified work on what might prove the turning point in his quest to extend Microsoft's supremacy from the office into the living room."</i><br /><br />Microsoft needs better hardware to help them deliver content to consumers and I think the Xbox 360 is the first salvo. Next they'll need to start producing their own music and video players or sign someone like Sony to make devices people want. Their current business model just isn't working. Video seems to be the next great frontier (how many years have we been saying that?), but with Apple on the prowl, who know if Microsoft just might have missed the boat again. Of course waiting for Hollywood to produce content for your players has been the problem and I suspect that is why Apple has waited so long. I'm not betting against Microsoft, but they have shown no signs that they'll be able to break Apple's monopoly on the digital media market.

[Kent Pribbernow]

...or sign someone like Sony to make devices people want..

Ha! Good luck with that. Sony has a different agenda; pushing their ridiculous ATRAC format.

[treo007]

Apple has a couple of hard won advantages here:

1) The entertainment industry, whether music, tv, or motion pictures has always prefered and used Apple over MS. Hell, Firewire even won an Oscar.

2) DRM is obviously almost everything to these content providers. It's certainly debatable whether Apple's DRM protection is better than MS' (Hymn project anyone?), but there's no doubt that Jobs can tell these companies that Apple on the whole writes more secure software than MS.

Not a day seems to go by where someone hasn't poked a security hold in some MS software. Even though a lot of this probably has to do with the fact that such a small percentage of folks even use a Mac, it still must scare media companies to death when it comes to making sure their content doesn't get bit torent'd all over the world anymore than it already is.

3) Jobs should win the video wars because, when courting the studios, he can point to how he's already saved the record companies.

4) You've got to think any solution Apple comes up with is going to be easier for the average person to implement than what MS delivers. This is of course especially important when it comes to the consumer market.

5) Hollywood is all about cool. Jobs is....well cooler than Gates at least. Gates is, how shall I say it, kind of a dork.