Microsoft deals hopeful hand in iPod game

Stan Beer
Thursday, 06 July 2006 22:59

IT Industry - Strategy

Microsoft, once the quintessential software company, is following Apple's formula with plans to release an iPod challenger timed to hit retail shelves by the end of year holiday season. The question is, can Microsoft even hope to play in the same league with a campaigner who has lived and breathed the consumer space for decades.
Eyeing Apple's phenomenal resurgence enviously, Microsoft has already got one of side of the end-to-end online music supply chain in place with its Windows Media Player 11 and an online music store alliance with MTV announced last month called Urge. All it needs now is a nifty portable media player device to compete with iPod.

That last bit is no mean feat. There are quite few factors to overcome if Microsoft wants to offer serious competition to iPod. The first thing is design expertise. Apple is renowned for its aesthetically pleasing and high quality hardware designs - it's part of the company's culture. iPods are not only lovely pieces of machinery, for young people they're considered cool - a status symbol. That's one thing that Microsoft will find almost impossible to duplicate. One thing Microsoft has never been is cool.

The other thing to consider is the type of device that Microsoft intends to bring to market. There really isn't much sense bringing out a copy of a present day iPod Nano because in the age of mobile telephony the days of that device are numbered. Apple is already working on an iPhone, so presumably Microsoft's device will also have some sort of wireless capability - perhaps WiFi.

Then there is the technological competency aspects to consider. Microsoft has produced Xbox and now LifeCam but neither of devices have needed to incorporate the sort of ergonomic and aesthetic design considerations that went into producing the amazing popularity of the iPod. Apple has a unique legacy of more than two decades of marrying plug and play hardware and software combinations to produce market winning products. Right now, under Steve Jobs, it is back to its very best, producing world beating money making products that are eagerly snapped by a growing and increasingly fanatically loyal user base

Microsoft, on the other hand, has gained a reputation of over promising and under delivering on its software and has never really established itself in the hardware market. Xbox loses money. To date, Microsoft still only makes money from three major software groups. Microsoft would have to come up with something absolutely phenomenal to win users away from Apple in the online music market, based on Microsoft's performance in recent times, it's hard to see that happening. Still if there's one thing that Microsoft has always been good at, in fact better than Apple, it's marketing. How else could it have convinced users to buy DOS PCs instead of Macintoshes?