02-10-2005, 07:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,968
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Microsoft And Apple - The End-to-End Experience Question
"What some people fail to understand is that there is a fundamental difference between Apple and Microsoft. Apple creates the hardware for their end users. They start with an end to end scenario. That is, they come up with a compelling idea, and they design the solution. No other company does this in the consumer space, and it's not possible unless you own everything in the scenario ... Now contrast this to Microsoft. For the past few years the focus has been on building a world class platform. From the codec's, to the encoding technology, to the protocol for moving bits from the computer to the device, to the encryption technology, policy enforcement of digital rights, and servers to manage those rights it's all been spec'ed and delivered in a manner that any software developer can utilize. You can create your own Music Store and sell content to anyone with a compatible device."
Wow, does someone from Microsoft finally get it? This article seems to have been provoked by the sensational Wired article that we all saw over the last couple of weeks. But there is a lot of merit to the point of view suggested here. Clearly stated, there is a fundamental difference in the philosophy between the two companies. Apple has created a fantastic music player, the iPod, that has essentially won over the market. And while a lot of people wonder why Microsoft is not competing against it, this article points out that that is not Microsoft's strategy. Instead, Microsoft wants to create a killer end to end technology platform, for example - the Portable Media Center and Janus. Apple has not opened up iTunes and the AAC format is essentially proprietary to the iPod and iTunes, plus has cornered the 60GB HDD market, but this control has given rise to a fantastic looking, extremely popular and very convenient player (despite the loss in audio quality - 128Kbit). While other companies (Creative, iRiver, Rio) have produced music players that are, as far as the featureset goes, far superior, none of them offer the complete solution that Apple has offered. Microsoft, on the other hand, has tried to create the platforms that would allow for this kind of solution, however, it appears to be hampered by negotiations between them and the various OEMs.
At this point, obviously Apple's strategy is winning, at least in the portable music arena. Unfortunately, it is doubtful that the conclusions stated in this article will work, but I think the points are stated beautifully. Highly Recommended reading.
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