Sunday, June 05, 2005
Techtalker - end of IPod
Is it the end of IPod?
The cult model IPod may now be under threat, or at least Bill Gates thinks this way. Last week at the Mobile and Embedded DevCon (MEDC) at Las Vega, Gates announced the launching of the Windows Mobile 5.0 operation system, but a little later in an interview predicted that the cellphone with an embedded MP3 player would mark the end of the IPod dominance.
"I don't think the success of the iPod can continue in the long term, however good Apple may be," the chairman of Microsoft, was quoted as saying to the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Like the popularity of the Mac, this too would lose its position, he predicted. The IPod is today a cult model with an estimated 15 million pieces sold worldwide. The leading digital music player is something which has made Apple regain its stature (not that it was lost anytime) in the global market, with even music majors like Sony conceding that they failed to anticipate the digital music market.
According to Gates, things would change when cellphones come with embedded MP3 music players where you can download music from various online services. Off course there are cellphones that can play MP3 right now, but for sheer quantity and quality of music, the IPod has been reigning supreme.
Music playback in cellphones today is restricted to a few very high end models, and they too cannot store long hours like the IPod can. Some recent phones like the Samsung i300 which was unveiled at the MEDC though has a hard disc of 3 GB, though the MP3 player is missing.
But Gates did not predict the demise of IPod alone, but also talked of how his product would be better than Blackberry, which requires you to log on to another service to check your email.
IPod lovers would have none of this. The "macobserver" had guests blogging to say that they would never carry their cellphones for 24 hours a day, and would rather spend their weekend with their IPod rather than a cellphone where tele marketing guys make life miserable for you. Others opined that music lovers were different than computer buyers. And like the Mac, there is no dearth of IPod lovers.
So what do you think? Did Gates take a bite at the Apple, or did he chew more than he could digest?
The cult model IPod may now be under threat, or at least Bill Gates thinks this way. Last week at the Mobile and Embedded DevCon (MEDC) at Las Vega, Gates announced the launching of the Windows Mobile 5.0 operation system, but a little later in an interview predicted that the cellphone with an embedded MP3 player would mark the end of the IPod dominance.
"I don't think the success of the iPod can continue in the long term, however good Apple may be," the chairman of Microsoft, was quoted as saying to the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Like the popularity of the Mac, this too would lose its position, he predicted. The IPod is today a cult model with an estimated 15 million pieces sold worldwide. The leading digital music player is something which has made Apple regain its stature (not that it was lost anytime) in the global market, with even music majors like Sony conceding that they failed to anticipate the digital music market.
According to Gates, things would change when cellphones come with embedded MP3 music players where you can download music from various online services. Off course there are cellphones that can play MP3 right now, but for sheer quantity and quality of music, the IPod has been reigning supreme.
Music playback in cellphones today is restricted to a few very high end models, and they too cannot store long hours like the IPod can. Some recent phones like the Samsung i300 which was unveiled at the MEDC though has a hard disc of 3 GB, though the MP3 player is missing.
But Gates did not predict the demise of IPod alone, but also talked of how his product would be better than Blackberry, which requires you to log on to another service to check your email.
IPod lovers would have none of this. The "macobserver" had guests blogging to say that they would never carry their cellphones for 24 hours a day, and would rather spend their weekend with their IPod rather than a cellphone where tele marketing guys make life miserable for you. Others opined that music lovers were different than computer buyers. And like the Mac, there is no dearth of IPod lovers.
So what do you think? Did Gates take a bite at the Apple, or did he chew more than he could digest?
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