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Skilled
Bill Gates is Right, and Wrong About The iPod
Bill Gates is at it again. Pimping the ugly iPod imitator Creative Zen. Chatting up replaceable batteries, FM tuners, and the like. His comments over the past few months about the iPod have increased probably due to the fact that he doesn’t have a cogent answer for why the iPod is rocking the marketplace. His latest blow is a low one. Not content to only diss the iPod he takes aim at our beloved Mac.
“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.â€
There are, indeed, some apparent parrellels to the Mac story. Looking at the issue very simplistically one could say that, indeed, Apple is following its closed system paradigm once again. Want to use an iPod? Great. But you have to buy songs from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Want to play songs from the iTunes Music Store on a portable player? The iPod is your only choice.
On the face of it this does look similar to so many other Apple decision. The lack of clones (except for a short moment in time). The lack of licensing its operating system to anyone else.
But the big difference that Bill Gates is missing in his analysis is the market context.
The typical iPod consumer is radically different than the typical computer purchaser. By in large computers are used by corporations, businesses, and schools. In this market Microsoft and its hardware ilk have blossomed. Why? Cost. Corporations care most about cost. Microsoft has (so far) won the desktop battles because it won in the boardroom not because it is the better OS.
The iPod is a different story. There is no corporation to set the standard. This means that, ultimately, the consumer will decide. And this time, I think the consumer will pick what it would have picked in the first place, the far superior product.
I picked up the Creative Zen flash player the other day at a local Cambridge Soundworks (where the sales rep informed me that the Creative Zen was, and I quote, crushing the iPod). The Zens were lined up in different colors like a bunch of bic lighters. It felt horribly cheap in my hand. The display looked interesting, but the whole thing felt like a cheap kids toy in my hand.
Now there are some other MP3 makers who make good products. Just like there are some computer manufactures who make decent computers, and, consumers can do Mac-like things like edit home movies, etc. But none of the current MP3 makers come with the integrated model that is the iTunes and iPod experience. It is such a good experience that no one cares that you can’t buy from Buymusic (are they still around?) or Napster.
But back to Bill. He also says that what will ultimately kill the iPod (oh, and yeah, the immensely successful Blackberry) is not the Creative Zen, but the mobile phone. The phone is where you will have your music, calendar, address book, all integrated, of course, with Windows Mobile.
This is where Bill could have a point. The standalone Palm is largely dead. A mere memory of the dotcom days when having a Palm 100 was the thing. Now it is either a Blackberry, or Palm-integrated phone. This is the one device that people are carrying around. Throw in a hard-drive and a decent (read Microsoft) user-interface and suddenly the iPod is like the old standalone Palms of the past, relegated to dusty draws and eBay.
I must admit, Bill’s point about phones makes sense. But not because it will be a better product. Rather it is because of the aforementioned corporations who killed the Mac. In this case the corporation are the Nextels, Verizons, and Cingulars of the world. They want in on the digital music game but on their terms. They also control the hardware and here an iPod phone (if Apple were to ever make one) would die. Firstly because the phone providers control the shelf space, and secondly because they have a say concerning what software goes on their phones. Even if a non-Apple phone running iTunes were to come out they will want to dictate the price and get their cut.
History will ultimately answer the longevity of the iPod. Indeed, if we take Bill’s example of the Macintosh one could argue that the iPod would do pretty darn well to follow in its path. The Mac has survived and excelled. And these days the buzz is all about market growth for the Mac, while Microsoft struggles with challenges from Firefox, Google, and the open source movement.
Regardless of what happens to the landscape I do think a little scuffing of the iPod’s sheen will be good for Apple. Derrick Story said it best recently when he said the thing he liked the most about Tiger was that it reminded people that Apple was not just about the iPod. The iPod is cool and all (and I say this as someone who wrote a book about it!), but ultimately, in the history of Apple, it is far from the most interesting product. But it is fun to see the iPod needle Bill Gates, reminding us that, once again, Apple still has the upper hand when it comes to innovation and design.
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Bill Gates is at it again. Pimping the ugly iPod imitator Creative Zen. Chatting up replaceable batteries, FM tuners, and the like. His comments over the past few months about the iPod have increased probably due to the fact that he doesn’t have a cogent answer for why the iPod is rocking the marketplace. His latest blow is a low one. Not content to only diss the iPod he takes aim at our beloved Mac.
“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.â€
There are, indeed, some apparent parrellels to the Mac story. Looking at the issue very simplistically one could say that, indeed, Apple is following its closed system paradigm once again. Want to use an iPod? Great. But you have to buy songs from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Want to play songs from the iTunes Music Store on a portable player? The iPod is your only choice.
On the face of it this does look similar to so many other Apple decision. The lack of clones (except for a short moment in time). The lack of licensing its operating system to anyone else.
But the big difference that Bill Gates is missing in his analysis is the market context.
The typical iPod consumer is radically different than the typical computer purchaser. By in large computers are used by corporations, businesses, and schools. In this market Microsoft and its hardware ilk have blossomed. Why? Cost. Corporations care most about cost. Microsoft has (so far) won the desktop battles because it won in the boardroom not because it is the better OS.
The iPod is a different story. There is no corporation to set the standard. This means that, ultimately, the consumer will decide. And this time, I think the consumer will pick what it would have picked in the first place, the far superior product.
I picked up the Creative Zen flash player the other day at a local Cambridge Soundworks (where the sales rep informed me that the Creative Zen was, and I quote, crushing the iPod). The Zens were lined up in different colors like a bunch of bic lighters. It felt horribly cheap in my hand. The display looked interesting, but the whole thing felt like a cheap kids toy in my hand.
Now there are some other MP3 makers who make good products. Just like there are some computer manufactures who make decent computers, and, consumers can do Mac-like things like edit home movies, etc. But none of the current MP3 makers come with the integrated model that is the iTunes and iPod experience. It is such a good experience that no one cares that you can’t buy from Buymusic (are they still around?) or Napster.
But back to Bill. He also says that what will ultimately kill the iPod (oh, and yeah, the immensely successful Blackberry) is not the Creative Zen, but the mobile phone. The phone is where you will have your music, calendar, address book, all integrated, of course, with Windows Mobile.
This is where Bill could have a point. The standalone Palm is largely dead. A mere memory of the dotcom days when having a Palm 100 was the thing. Now it is either a Blackberry, or Palm-integrated phone. This is the one device that people are carrying around. Throw in a hard-drive and a decent (read Microsoft) user-interface and suddenly the iPod is like the old standalone Palms of the past, relegated to dusty draws and eBay.
I must admit, Bill’s point about phones makes sense. But not because it will be a better product. Rather it is because of the aforementioned corporations who killed the Mac. In this case the corporation are the Nextels, Verizons, and Cingulars of the world. They want in on the digital music game but on their terms. They also control the hardware and here an iPod phone (if Apple were to ever make one) would die. Firstly because the phone providers control the shelf space, and secondly because they have a say concerning what software goes on their phones. Even if a non-Apple phone running iTunes were to come out they will want to dictate the price and get their cut.
History will ultimately answer the longevity of the iPod. Indeed, if we take Bill’s example of the Macintosh one could argue that the iPod would do pretty darn well to follow in its path. The Mac has survived and excelled. And these days the buzz is all about market growth for the Mac, while Microsoft struggles with challenges from Firefox, Google, and the open source movement.
Regardless of what happens to the landscape I do think a little scuffing of the iPod’s sheen will be good for Apple. Derrick Story said it best recently when he said the thing he liked the most about Tiger was that it reminded people that Apple was not just about the iPod. The iPod is cool and all (and I say this as someone who wrote a book about it!), but ultimately, in the history of Apple, it is far from the most interesting product. But it is fun to see the iPod needle Bill Gates, reminding us that, once again, Apple still has the upper hand when it comes to innovation and design.
[RANK="applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/bill_gates_is_right_and_wrong_about_the_ipod/"]Source[/RANK]
A comment on the article:
