MSFT-MOTO Hookup Anticlimactic?
Seth at the Motley Fool seems unimpressed with Motorola's and Microsoft's recent mobile Windows Media Player announcement:
The promise of corporate conflict might make for good headlines, but more often than not the showdowns promised are about as dramatic as the 3rd grade spring pageant.
He points to the following in support of an anti-climax:
- High prices for mobiles song downloads (usually starting at $1.99)
- Nokia made the same announcement last year regarding WMP on their phones
- Motorola has already been making phones with Windows Mobile OS for some time
- MSFT is just trying, as always, to make its OS as ubiquitous as possible
There's always a nay-sayer in the crowd...who makes very interesting points. Still, one must consider the fact that 42 million iPods have been sold, versus 2 billion mobile phones worldwide. There are a lot of consumers that might be happy to buy a music phone, rather than two separate devices.
As Seth mentioned, it'll all come down to consumer preference.
Comments
I think he can't say anything just yet. Considering Apple's iTunes is 99 cent, sure.. but 99 cents that buys you a song that you only need to burn first and then re-rip off cd to make it an mp3... what a hassle! And the protected mp4 files only work on ipods. My point is that its just as a hassle for both sides, both wanting full manipulization and control. A plus to Motorola is that iRadio is/will be world wide, no need for satellite radio. Ok, sure songs may start at 1.99 on the phone, but come on!! If your a SMART CONSUMER, you'll buy them online on your pc FIRST, then trasfer them to your handheld. DUH!!! And about Microsoft OS, deal with it. Of course Microsoft is going to use their own OS for the phones. And yes, the rest of the world like Japan and China, tech savy countries hate or are not on the ipod bandwagon... they have tech devices that surpass anything in the united states. Just my $0.02.
Posted by: julio | February 15, 2006 08:58 PM
Great points, Julio. There is a big disparity between US and other markets. (and btw, it's Motorola that's been using MSFT's OS ;) ). But I do believe there's a big potential. In the worst case, not a single iPod user decides to switch to a converged device; even then, there's a huge opportunity for a good music phone, and especially for an iRadio phone.
Posted by: MikeB | February 16, 2006 11:16 AM