Microsoft To Unveil iPod "Competitors" At CES?

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/155236_msftnotebook05.html' target='_blank'>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busin...notebook05.html</a><br /><br /></div>"And later this week, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft is expected to give new details about a line of portable devices that, in the view of some analysts, could give the popular iPod an extra measure of competition. The hand-held devices, called Portable Media Centers, will store and play back video, music and photos. Microsoft unveiled a prototype at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, under the code name Media2Go. The company had originally hoped to see at least one of the devices on the market during the recent holiday season, but the first release is now expected in the second half of this year."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040107-PortableMediaCenter.jpg" /><br /><br />I hadn't see a picture of a sample Portable Media Center unit before, and I have to say, it looks pretty impressive. On the other hand, it remains to be seen whether this will take off -- I can't tell from the picture, but it might be large and unwieldy. In order for it not to be confused with a PDA, it has to be very focused on multimedia capabilities, and more importantly, simple and easy-to-use. The iPod delivers both in spades... and iTunes is an amazingly easy-to-use yet powerful program with decent DRM policies. It seems that portable media players are shaping up to be the next battlefront for consumer dollars.

[yslee]

It looks iPaq-ish from the pic, maybe bigger, judging from the size of the connector and buttons in relation to the entire device.

I'd say, just stick with audio, make the device small, function, and hopefully cheap. I don't fancy watching movies on a 4" or less screen.

[Air]

That thing is GIGANTIC. It's an ogre. ...yikes.
why can't they put microdrive into PPC and be done with it ? A Toshiba e800 with a 1-4GB microdrive sure as heck is more usefull than that 'thing'...

weird, whoever develop this idea should be shot, just like SPOT and smartscreen. (Spot: who wants a watch that need to be charged everyday? lol )

[Jason Dunn]

why can't they put microdrive into PPC and be done with it ? A Toshiba e800 with a 1-4GB microdrive sure as heck is more usefull than that 'thing'...

Because, in case you hadn't noticed, the mass market isn't interested in PDAs. They're a niche market, and Microsoft is trying to develop products that will reach out to new groups of people. Can a Pocket PC do more than one of these devices? Yes, absolutely. But is a Pocket PC more complicated than the average person wants, especially when it comes to encoding/resizing/transferring media? Yes. The goal of these device is to have a highly focused, simplistic UI that makes it easy for people to do what they want with it.

Remember that not everything is designed with you in mind. :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

BTW, I think this is an old prototype photo. It looks a lot like the one I saw at Mobius Europe in May of 2003:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,12271

Jeese I wish Digital Media Thoughts was launched. :roll:

[powder2000]

Looks like a zodiac to me :roll:, right down to the dock.

[gorkon280]

That thing is GIGANTIC. It's an ogre. ...yikes.
why can't they put microdrive into PPC and be done with it ? A Toshiba e800 with a 1-4GB microdrive sure as heck is more usefull than that 'thing'...

weird, whoever develop this idea should be shot, just like SPOT and smartscreen. (Spot: who wants a watch that need to be charged everyday? lol )

Noone would buy a device to watch videos on a regular basis with a screen as small as ANY PPC. This may have PDA features built in, but it will be media focused and because of this, it needs at least a 6-7 inch screen if not larger. No larger then about 10 inches though. Gte larger then 10 and you may as well just buy a tablet PC or a laptop.

I agree with ya on spot though. If it has to be charged everyday, then no sale in my book. I already need to charge the following on a consistant basis:

my iPaq
2 cell phones (one work, one personal)
My Yaesu VX-7R (Ham radio)
My MP3 Player (though not everyday...I usually can get a week out of listening to it for 45 minutes to an hour everyday)
Laptop

Last thing I want to do is make sure my watch is charged.

[Jason Dunn]

Looks like a zodiac to me :roll:, right down to the dock.

Don't roll your eyes too much - this design is at least 18 months old...

[Jeff Rutledge]

It looks iPaq-ish from the pic, maybe bigger, judging from the size of the connector and buttons in relation to the entire device.

I'd say, just stick with audio, make the device small, function, and hopefully cheap. I don't fancy watching movies on a 4" or less screen.

Bear in mind that this photo is a prototype. I imagine the devices unveiled will be more stylish.

[Jeff Rutledge]

It looks iPaq-ish from the pic, maybe bigger, judging from the size of the connector and buttons in relation to the entire device.

I'd say, just stick with audio, make the device small, function, and hopefully cheap. I don't fancy watching movies on a 4" or less screen.

Bear in mind that this photo is a prototype. I imagine the devices unveiled will be more stylish.

Holy! My post above was totally behind the times by the time I hit Submit. And I'm a pretty fast typer...

[yslee]

Jeese I wish Digital Media Thoughts was launched. :roll:

OT: How's the site going? 2004 already. >P

[Swordsman74]

From a pure business sense, this really makes no sense. Yes, PDA's and media players are two distinct markets, with some overlap. What Microsoft is missing is that they could have both markets be served with the same device. I'm not an engineer, but wouldn't both a PPC and a media player utilize mostly the same hardware? Sound, video, RAM, file storage, etc....
If this is true, they could build the framework as a PDA, but for the media player they could have it run a dumbed-down version of PPC2003 with a media-specific UI (perhaps like MS Media Center PC's?). Then every PPC vendor could offer both PDA and media player devices built on the same platform (like some cars and trucks are today).

Any comments, disagreements?

[possmann]

I just don't see this taking off anywhere - maybe I'm not looking at it right... I mean it does seem large (prototype) and the audience is for who again? iPOD users? BTW, the iPOD is unveiling their smaller mp3 player and I think that is what people want in tunes device... putting tunes and a movie screen together - I'm still not convinced. Then enter the entire idea of ripping a DVD from your collection on to this device to watch and the whole DRM issues around that... I just don't think there is that much demand for portable video (and audio) only devices.

My prediction is that this will bomb out in a couple of years as people wise up to PDAs and Smartphone devices to view video/listen to mp3's with those.

[Jason Dunn]

OT: How's the site going? 2004 already. >P

Have you checked recently? I added some text to the front page that explains where we're at. :-)

www.digitalmediathoughts.com

[kingraf01]

Heck I was hoping that microsoft would just come out with stand alone media player, and this sounds close enough. I wouldn't mind the extra work to rip what I need to for long road trips or whatever. Just so I can play this in my car instead of installing a dvd player. Plus be able to play MP3s, WMAs, mpgs, etc. on a bigger screen then my Dell Axim or Jornada, sweeeet!

[johnm]

I guess we'll have to see where this goes. Personally I would just prefer a pocketPc with built in 1" hard drive - say around 6G. That would do me fine. There are some new guys on the block that have a cost reduced drive that would be perfect (although on 2G at the moment.)

http://news.com.com/2100-1041-1012235.html
http://www.corniceco.com/products/index.html

I think that a video/audio player will take off though. I think that it is a natural evolution of PVR's and TIVO. When you can easily transcode your favorite shows and sync them to your portable device there should be some interest from people that ride a bus etc. Its probably a niche market though.

This year a kid video player called Video Now has been quite popular even though it is black and white and you can't create your own media. Go figure.
http://www.hasbro.com/videonow/

[Crimguy]

It looks iPaq-ish from the pic, maybe bigger, judging from the size of the connector and buttons in relation to the entire device.

I'd say, just stick with audio, make the device small, function, and hopefully cheap. I don't fancy watching movies on a 4" or less screen.

I agree. I 've got this feeling that MS is biting off more than it can chew with this product - they're better off making something do a few tasks very well than a device that purports to do everything, but in reality does those things poorly. Movies would be great for people who travel a lot, but I'll bet that this thing won't do movies well, will suck down it's battery in about the same amount of time it takes to watch one movie (so no more music/movies that day), and will incorporate DRM technologies that will make it annoying at best, or unable to provide decent quality/useability at worst.

[paulevs]

I agree with postmann My prediction is that this will bomb out in a couple of years as people wise up to PDAs and Smartphone devices to view video/listen to mp3's with those.
But in the mean time, if anyone likes the idea of being able to carry Video (AVI Format), MP3, Pictures and Data around all on a 20, 40 or 80GB++ Hard Drive and with the ability to record from DVD's, Video's, anything via your TV. Also comes with a fairly decent sized viewable screen, then check out these devices by Archos :-) http://www.archos.com/products/av300_series.html

[Crimguy]

Heck I was hoping that microsoft would just come out with stand alone media player, and this sounds close enough. I wouldn't mind the extra work to rip what I need to for long road trips or whatever. Just so I can play this in my car instead of installing a dvd player. Plus be able to play MP3s, WMAs, mpgs, etc. on a bigger screen then my Dell Axim or Jornada, sweeeet!

I don't know what you would expect out of a MS media player, unless you meant a home theater setup, which could be cool (already doable with Windows Media Center Edition - the latest version is looking very good). I think they wanted to try something different - there's tons of mp3 players out there now. I love the iPod and own a Samsung YP910, which I also like a lot. Both of these accomplish their intended use very well, and I doubt MS can really improve on the current crop any better than anyone else.

[jornadaholic]

i cant see these things being a big hit with the adverage consumer think about it the device might be an ok mp3 player hell it might even be a great mp3 player but when it come to the video i think ms is looking at a whole mess of trouble think about it chances are you will need to encode video to play on this device properly and now how many non geek adverage everyday computer users are gonna know how to do that or are gonna want to sit back and wait accouple of hours to encode a video just so they can watch it on a 4 inch screen :roll: i have a bunch of friends that i know would rather buy a portable dvd player and an ipod then have to put up with the frustration of encoding video

[Shaun Stuart]

I think this is a nice idea but will it be able to compete with the expected playstation portable. I read the psp will also play music and video.

Which would you prefer a portable games machine with a catalogue of thousands of games plus video plus music or a new device from microsoft ?

[yslee]

OT: How's the site going? 2004 already. >P

Have you checked recently? I added some text to the front page that explains where we're at. :-)

www.digitalmediathoughts.com

Last OT: Ah, I see. BTW, the title tags still say coming in 2003, heh.

Oh my, I didn't think about DRM. Ack, DRM promises to make any media player a real troublesome device to work with, IMHO

[Jonathon Watkins]

Jeese I wish Digital Media Thoughts was launched. :roll:

So do we. :wink:

But how will you divide your time between 3 site when you have this, the media and smartphone websites all up and running?

[ctmagnus]

But how will you divide your time between 3 site when you have this, the media and smartphone websites all up and running?

Pocket Informant? ;)

btw, thoughtsmedia.com (www.thoughtsmedia.com) also says 2003, only in the actual window ;)

[mistame]

here's another microsoft person media center. it looks somewhat similar and it's being released by iRiver:

http://home.megapass.co.kr/~liy5479/pmc-100(1)1.jpg
http://home.megapass.co.kr/~liy5479/pmc-100(2).jpg
http://home.megapass.co.kr/~liy5479/pmc-100(3).jpg

The listed information:
Microsoft PMC-100
Wide 3.5" TFT LCD Display
TV-Out & USB 2.0 support
Plays 5 hours with built in rechargeable (Li-Ion)
Supported Codec: MP3, WMA, WMV, JPEG

[gohtor]

it looks kinda big but I'll buy it just to mount onto my dashboard.

whoops. I guess I can't drive with this unit on my dashboard while in california.. heh.

[ultach]

My Goodness. That has to be one of the most ugly pieces of
hardware I have seen in quite some time.

[fgarcia10]

I just saw in CNN a guy talking about the new products in the show and he showed a unit made by Creative, at first I though it the toshiba E800 that he was holding. But it looked better and he said that particular one will be offered with a 20 or 30 GB hard drive for around six or seven hundred dollars 8O

[Jonathon Watkins]

I just saw in CNN a guy talking about the new products in the show and he showed a unit made by Creative, at first I though it the toshiba E800 that he was holding. But it looked better and he said that particular one will be offered with a 20 or 30 GB hard drive for around six or seven hundred dollars 8O

Sounds interesting. Any model numbers or more details?

[fgarcia10]

[quote=Sounds interesting. Any model numbers or more details?[/quote]

No, sorry. He had a ton of products to show and he did not spent much time on each.