Bill Gates Says IPod Success Won't Last

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates says Apple Computer Corp. shouldn't get comfortable atop the portable music playing world.

"I don't think the success of the iPod can continue in the long term, however good Apple may be," the former chairman of Microsoft, the world's biggest maker of computer software, was quoted as telling German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published Thursday.

"I think you can draw parallels here with the computer — here, too, Apple was once extremely strong with its Macintosh and graphic user interface, like with the iPod today, and then lost its position."

The iPod is one of the world's most popular portable digital music players, with more than 15 million sold since they were introduced.

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/19188631

[Liberal Veteran]

1. And the internet is just a "fad"

:D

[autorank]

2. He better hope so!!! And Linux is a fad and Firefox won't fly!

:rofl: :evilgrin:

[ComerPerro]

24. LOL

[Coventina]

3. Bill Gates is an arrogant prick.....where's msPOD?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my iPod!!! I don't know how I lived without it!

[Hugin]

4. Didn't he say something about 64K of RAM once?

Quick, somebody ask Ralph Reed.

[iconoclastNYC]

7. "Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!"

"Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!" -- Bill Gates, 1981

"Windows 95 needs at least 8 MB RAM." -- Bill Gates, 1996

"Nobody will ever need Windows 95." -- logical conclusion

http://www.anvari.org/fortune/Humorix_Misc/257.html

[Deja Q]

14. Correct. And Win95 suffers unless you have 32MB... but Gates is no

technological geek. Hell, he dropped out of high school. He's a marketer, nothing more. A salesman.

At the right place at the right time and shrewd and determined enough to find ways to pervert the law in his favor. That is Gates. He is no hero, he's sleaze.

When the law got to him in 1994 for gross misuse of licensing practices, it was beyond too late and the penalty way too small. "let the punishment fit the criminal" is a concept the guv won't ever understand. Hell, it kills drug users, is dainty with drug dealers (Tim Allen being a good example of one) and lets Ken Lay and his ilk go free. I'm not surprised Gates is so powerful.

[iconoclastNYC]

20. He dropped out of Harvard not H.S.

And if i had a great business plan and a daddy who was a big shot lawyer I'd do the same.

[Hugin]

15. Wow! That was a fast fact check.

I'm impressed.

[curse10]

5. jealous? perhaps?

I love my iPod!

[Melodybe]

6. And Longhorn's release date is when?

[iconoclastNYC]

30. As soon as they can figure out what to add to it

To make it a worthwhile upgrade.

I'm with Win2K.... the activation crap in XP is very upsetting, and Longhorn's "trusted computing" is so much worse.

[grace0418]

43. Yes, definitely jealous because

Microsoft can make all the money in the world but Apple will always be cooler.

[Susang]

55. And prettier

I'm picking up my new imac tonight. Whoopee! :party:

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. And the x-box changed the world right?

[slutticus]

47. LOL!

Yeah... they have the more powerful system with the XBox, but I'll take my PS2 over that POS any day!

M$ just doesn't know how to survive in a competitive market...so Bill has to resort to talking out of his ass.

[ghostsofgiants]

9. I actually kind of hope he's right

The iPod is nice and all but there actually are better options out there in my opinion.

[name not needed]

35. You're tellin me

Now I'm looking for something with a removeable battery to replace my Ipod Mini. Battery was supposed to last around 2 years, died almost 6 months to the day after I bought it.

[slutticus]

48. Nice sigline pic...

"...and quite frankly it's turning his life upsidedownface..."

LOL!

[emulatorloo]

10. blah blah blah blah blah

go back to shoving your crap OS and BS apps down the world's throat. Maybe 'clippie' can help you.

[Deja Q]

11. Well, if Apple adopts Microsoft's licensing policies than the ipod can

last 20+ years too. And when everything becomes centralized via a massive wi-fi incentive to eliminate piracy, Apple can be at the forefront of that too.

And why do you have that pic of Gates looking like Playgeek's Ms. February 1981 ?! :puke: His same trademark arrogant "I'm better than you even though I dropped out of school, leached off of IBM, and imposed fascist licensing policies" smirk is there too.

[iconoclastNYC]

12. He's right in a way.

I carry a cell phone. And then I have an Ipod too. Wouldn't it be nice if the phone could replace the Ipod?

The next generation wireless technology will provide, when prices drop, an always-on connection to the internet. So when this is available the phone will just give you a view to your home PC music library and you'll be able to stream tracks and playlists. No need for local storage, but the phone will probably have 2-5gigs of solid state memory like the Ipod shuffle does so you can listen to music if you are out of range of the wireless telco services. You'd be able to sync the off-line storage over the wireless connection anytime you had cell service.

This is the future.

Now the question is...when does the Apple branded cell phone come out? I'm not even a big mac fan but i'd buy one. Apple really needs branch out from computers and the ipod. They have the best industrial designers on the planet and they could clean up in the handset segment.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Answer To First Question: NO!

It would be nice if the iPod replaced your phone and not the other way around. If that were true for everyone, people would be listening to music through headphones and not chatting away with a disembodied voice with their cellphone glued to their heads everywhere i went.

Sorry, nothing personal. Just used your question as an opportunity to rant. I'm in a real bad mood.
The Professor

[iconoclastNYC]

25. I so disagree.

The form factor of a phone is a lot less flexible than a music player. The music player is always used with headphones. Very few people like to fiddle with earphones for a telephone.

The form factor issues is why so many PDA/Phone have failed. People want small phones that fit thier head well. And you can't make a good PDA in the footprint of a ergonomically pleasing phone.

;)

[ProfessorGAC]

33. I Was Just Kidding

I was more thinking about people groovin' to the music rather than chattering away on the phone. I was just stickin' a thumb in your eye, simply because of the title for your first post.

No offense or argument intended.
The Professor

[Deja Q]

18. That's basically a PDA with an integrated cell phone with a 20GB harddrive

Those phone-PDA devices, if a 128MB SD module is used, is basically an ipod minus 20GB. So what, I prefer updating the contents as needed instead of looking through an oversized menu. 20GB worth of MP3s must be atrocious to navigate.

[iconoclastNYC]

26. I disagree.

The beauty of the ipod is the interface. And Ipod functionality was merged onto a cell phone the interface would be as it is on the ipod, which is to say, simple, intuitive, brilliant.

[Hugin]

22. I've been thinking that for awhile now...

They have cell phones which play TeeVee. How's about
a simple mp3 player.

With nifty headphones which can switch on and off a
mike when you get a call.

I'd buy one, but, I'm a gizmo-ho.

[chenGOD]

31. In Korea and Japan, that's already happening.

My wife's phone plays MP3s. Has 1GB storage capacity with a mini SD card.And hers is kind of an older model. The new ones all play video/stream TV from satellite/do MP3s and I think they cook breakfast too.



The Apple/Motorola cell phone will possibly be introduced at the next MacWorld convention.

[colinmom71]

51. I've been told there are rumors Apple is already on this...

DH (a Mac tech) told me a while back that Apple is rumored to be working with (I believe) Motorola on a cell phone/PDA/iTunes enabled device. Don't know if it will have an Apple logo or design though. If it does happen and is all Appled up, this household will have two in hand as soon as it's available... DH's Blackberry is nifty, but he'd ditch it for an Apple device in a heartbeat...

[iconoclastNYC]

13. Also: the beef against the Ipod

the only one, besides the price premium Apple commands, is that fact that you are locked-in with the tracks you purchase from the ITunes Music Store.

Apple at some point in the future could face the sort of antitrust problems that MSFT had. IANAL but, it seems to me there might be a case that the IPOD lock in is unlawfully 'bundling'. The Ipod has such a high marketshare, I think you could make this case, and win in a court that is pro-Sherman act insteaad of 'pro-business'

[Deja Q]

19. Or this little issue too:

http://www.badapple.biz

[iconoclastNYC]

28. you could say the same about:

Samsung, sony, toshiba, creative, etc...etc....all personal electronic devices are bad for the environment, even before they reach the landfill. Look at the case against IBM for knowingly allowing thier clean room employees to be exposed to toxic cancer-causing chemicals.

I can see the reasont his group is going after Apple : visibility, but I dont think that it's a reason NOT to buy an Ipod. Now if Apple repsonds to this campaign and goes above and beyond what thier competitors are doing in terms of the environment then that would be a point in the Ipods favor. And from what I remember some claim that Apple does have a better than average record for eco-friendlyness.

[emulatorloo]

34. YOU ARE NOT LOCKED IN WITH THE TRACKS YOU PURCHASE FROM ITUNES STORE

sorry for yelling but I am tired of hearing this nonsense

Look, ITunes the FREE software plays songs in the following formats:

AIFF
WAV
MP3
AAC (store format)

and others

So Does iPod. MP3 AIFF AAC WAV etc etc etc

I have a 10 gig library of music that I play w iTunes and iPod and I have purchased only 2 songs from iTunes store. Likewise I use iTunes to manage the library on my dumb little Virgin brand flash MP3 player. And if I wanted to play those AAC format songs on my Virgin player, iTunes will convert them to MP3 for me. If I want to play thme on my car CD, iTunes will burn an audio CD for me. And if for some reason I want to rip that CD into something else I can. OK?

So stop spreading FUD.

And PS, iPod is competively priced to similar players.

[name not needed]

37. Then would you mind explaining how to convert my m4p files to mp3?

I'd like to be able to use them on on my next mp3 player, which isn't likely to be an Ipod.

[emulatorloo]

42. Here you go:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93123

or if that doesn't do what you are looking for, burn an audio CD of your songs and rip the audio CD.

or if that doesn't do what you are looking for I bet a google might turn up some other options. . . .

[name not needed]

46. I think I'll just burn a cd then rip it

Seeing as I can't convert the songs I bought.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

16. Doesn't he realise that as he speaks, Apple are probably working on

the successor to the Ipod? If or when the current demand for Ipods end, Apple will likely bring something else to the consumer market.

[BigMcLargehuge]

21. you can see in the pic the MSPod has the iPod beat hands down

it's an MP3 player that looks, and has the heft, of a monochrome monitor from 1982.

[Susang]

54. LOL

I just love that retro styling! :D

[ComerPerro]

23. He can only hope

[Reverend_Smitty]

27. boy oh boy

he just isn't happy unless he has a complete monopoly over the entire world of technology, isn't he?

[LiberallyInclined]

29. I'm waaaay behind the times i guess-

i don't have an ipod, and have no desire for one-
the only reason i have a cell phone is because a friend of mine who owns his own business ands likes to be able to get ahold of me, gave me one...
i'm not a 'gamer' either. the only video 'games' i have are MYST(bought LONG ago) and microsoft flight simulator(still in the box, 3 years after it was given to me). my wife's coworker upgraded his gaming system, and gave my wife his playstation and two shoeboxes full of games for it- we never even hooked it up, and gave it to another friend of ours who has kids.
anybody else happily letting the technology stream just keep on flowing by?

on edit- just for a little background i'm a 44 y.o. male, and i was in the 99th percentile of all categories on my college boards way back when.

[AndyTiedye]

32. That is True, But it is Even More true of Microsoft

[AlCzervik]

36. Bill, such a hater! He and Jobs should just meet in a boxing ring

and slug it out.

[Book Lover]

38. Well, what else is Bill going to say?

"Hey, Steve, you people totally win with your incredible iPod! Even folks like Book Lover, who hates you for your general prickitude even though she uses your OS for her publishing job, love the iPod."

On the other hand, the company that comes out with a useful all-in-one will win the day. IMHO, the Treo is still to awakward to use as a phone, and what's the storage capacity right now?

spelling on edit (I've been misspelling all day!)

[pilgrimsoul]

39. Bwaaa haaa haaaa!!! Yeah, rrrright

Gates, you'll have to pry my beloved iPod from my cold, dead fingers.

Jealous much?

[TheMightyFavog]

40. Yeah, Bill, and in five years, pro Video editing will all be done on PCs.

:sarcasm:

[grace0418]

41. Those grapes sure are sour Billy-Boy!

What, 100 gazillion dollars isn't enough for you? You're going to pout until you have it ALL?

[GOPisEvil]

44. I see his point in a way.

The point is that if Apple doesn't keep innovating, eventually others will produce a better mouse trap in the end. If I were the folks at Apple, I'd pay him some heed, and stay ahead of the curve.

[Susang]

53. Mousetrap - is that some kind of a joke?

}(

Don't forget, the mouse was actually Apple's invention. ;-)

Apple will alway continues to innovate, at least while Steve Jobs is in charge. That's their stock in trade. I believe that's what makes Gates so angry. So much of what Microsoft has done was actually done first (and done better) by Apple.

[MadHound]

45. Let me guess Bill, you're planning on ripping off Apple again.

Oh, and didn't you state one time that nobody would ever need more than 640 Kb of memory?

[Placebo]

49. Bill Gates is a peepeehead.

[Demobrat]

50. Jobs has pulled off the greatest second act in the history of business.

And when the ipod market becomes saturated he will no doubt come up with something else. Gates is a hack who stole his interface from Xerox. He got lucky, but luck only lasts so long. Talent lasts forever.

[Dukkha]

52. No audiophile would EVER use a cell phone for music!

an iPod is barely passable too. No matter which way you slice it, mp3 is the most inferior of all audio formats.

The industry needs to stop going the opposite direction. It should be focused on improving digital quality in audio and not simply making sexy portable gadgets that produces lo-fi CRAP. We seen the type of "photos" phone take. PU!

Not to mention excessive cell phone use should always be discouraged. The rudest implementation of technology in history. It's made us a nation of self-centered assholes!