05-12-2005, 08:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Gates Says iPod Success Not Sustainable, Phones Take Over Music Role
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050512/tc_nm/tech_microsoft_gates_dc_2&printer=1
"Microsoft founder Bill Gates sees mobile phones overtaking MP3s as the top choice of portable music player, 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."
The article goes on to say MS is working on getting its Windows Mobile operating system in the hands of 40 device makers. I agree with his assessment. MP3 players as a group are going to be replaced by functionality in mobile phones. The early adopters are going to want to keep the 20GB and larger music players at their disposal for a while, but when you can currently stick a 1GB SD card in a phone and get 40 hours of music out of that for around $75, who is going to bother with an external device? I am sure there are phone makers right now putting 1GB embedded memory in phones so you don't have to bother buying a card. Couple that with high speed wireless connections where you will be able to download directly into the phone and you have an incredible combination.
Of course, the flip side is Apple may also be working with phone makers to merge the iPod and wireless technologies. If they aren't working on something to protect the future of the iPod brand, it will be relegated to a small corner of the portable music market, just like the Mac was relegated to a dark and dusty corner of the computing market.
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05-12-2005, 08:16 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 104
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Thought you might have seen this on Gizmodo last month. Apple is trying, but hasn't met with as much success to date.
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05-12-2005, 08:19 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 108
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I would be interested in testing this theory about just using a 1mb flash card with your 'existing' device and skipping the dedicated mp3 player. How many thoughts readers are doing this today with their 5600 smart phone? How many with their pocketPCs?
For me it was just obvious, I added a 4G microdrive to my Ipaq and use it as my MP3 device. Yet I know people who have both a pocketPC and an Ipod.
__________________
I use Remote Conductor for iPad!
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05-12-2005, 08:41 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 87
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If iPod pushes, hard, the fact that their devices will Wifi Sync when Microsoft REMOVED Wifi Syncing...
Seems like Microsoft is driving the wrong way down a highway... this could be an issue for them if they don't reverse their decision.
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05-12-2005, 08:47 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,734
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This will only happen is people pay attention to the interface and integration. I have an mp3 player on my mobile phone, but the UI is atrocious, and I did not feel motivated at all to buy a larger MS to store music on.
The SDA music is a move in the right direction however. I'm a great believer in buttons and physical interfaces to reduce the learning curve. If MS can add smart synching to device they stand a chance of supplanting the Ipod. If the Ipod Shuffle can be a success based on its synching software, any mobile phone can be too.
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/tmob...one-021345.php
Surur
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05-12-2005, 08:55 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 980
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Well, I believe that Gate is wrong, iPod will have a long live because no everybody wants or likes the all-in-one concept. In another hand I have not seen yet any software-hardware combination as good as the iPod-iTune combination. Let's put it in this way, you can be good in one thing but if you try to become good in everything you will end being just a "middling". 
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05-12-2005, 09:13 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 133
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I kind of agree with ctitanic.
For integrated devices there does seem to be quite a bit of "jack of all trades" going on.
I think the market for mobiles is just a little shook up right now. We'll see how it all settles, but I seriously doubt that stand alone Music/Entertainment devices are ever going to go away. I for one wouldn't want to take my super-music-internet-smartphone with me to work out, and sweat all over it. Thats what the ipod shuffle is for :wink:.
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05-12-2005, 09:18 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 267
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As for my struggle between number of devices and use, I think I have decide on my future configuration: A pocketpc(or any future equivalent) phone and a iPod shuffle(which I already have). I used to use my IPAQ 2210 as my music player too but the abuse that it recieved as an audio device made it hard for me to continue using it as a music player.
So now my IPAQ battery life lasts and I expose it to less hazards after my iPod shuffle took over. I'm a music freak( too poor to be an audiophile  ) so I ABSOLUTELY have to have music on hand 80% of the time.
But that's just me. All I'm missing is phone functionality and I am set for the future.. :mrgreen:
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05-12-2005, 09:20 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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Yah well show me a phone that can hold all 43GBs of music (And growing) that I have, has an interface as easy as the iPod, gets about 15 hours of battery life, a Windows player as slick and easy as iTunes, an accessory range as large as the iPod, and integrates into a growing number of cars and you have yourself a deal. Until then Gates is full of piss and wind...ows. :roll:
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PDA History: Palm Pilot 5000 -> Apple Newton 2100 -> Casio E-11 -> iPaq 3650 (64MB Upgrade) -> iPaq 3700 -> Casio EM-500 -> HP Jornada 568 -> HP iPaq hx4705 www.spreadfirefox.com |
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05-12-2005, 09:23 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 251
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Wow, Gates is really off the mark with this prediction. To me the biggest draw back will be the battery life. How many people are going to risk losing use of their cellphone cause they listened to too many mp3s and the battery went dead.
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