Microsoft To Construct iPod/DS/PSP Killer 318
Karsten writes "According to The Mercury News Microsoft is developing a PSP/DS/GBA/iPod-killer. J. Allard is leading the project." J. Allard is the man behind the Xbox, and from looking at the article it sounds like it's at least a year before this device, if it hits daylight, would be coming.
Everything is a 'Killer' (Score:5, Insightful)
I've said it before [slashdot.org] and I'll say it again--for the love of god, please stop printing mindless headlines of the form "[insert company name here] is [planning/making] a [insert industry-wide leading product name here] killer."
hmm... no (Score:5, Insightful)
Time to... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously though, with Xbox and Xbox Live MS has shown that they are capable of doing interesting, cool things with both consoles and gaming generally. I'll be interested to see what they come up with.
I can feel the pain (Score:5, Insightful)
My experience with MS in handhelds is terrible. I've owned about 30 PDAs in my life (I tend to use them for 3-4 months and then sell them to friends or family or give them away). All my Newtons were my favorite (from the original MessagePad through the 2100). I feel terrible that I sold all my Newtons years ago -- I think I'd still be using the beasts today.
Microsoft doesn't know how to downsize anything. The big complaints about Windows from the geek crowd is more appropriate for Microsoft in the small-PC crowd. I had a Microsoft car radio once -- Worst. Thing. Ever. My current PDA is Microsoft based and it works very well wirelessly -- yet I have to reboot it about 10 times a day to get it to run fast.
I have no faith in Microsoft in terms of an iPod killer. The X-Box is mostly a fluke to me -- a lot of money spent, very little profit made -- which means the item is NOT a success in terms of market viability. For me, the best products are those that make a profit, giving the manufacturer real reason to keep upgrading and supporting it.
If the Microsoft 'iPod' killer is another spend-a-ton-and-earn-none fluke, it won't last. Microsoft needs a happy customer, and a happy customer pays a happy profit. Without that incentive, Microsoft will be fighting battles on too many fronts, and we know what happens to the imperialists that have done that in the past.
*YAWN* (Score:5, Insightful)
They can try... (Score:4, Insightful)
A behaviour is exceptionally hard to change, especially if it is based on an already well working service.
What it takes to kill an iPod (Score:2, Insightful)
Someday there might well be a product that comes around that is more hip than the iPod. I'm pretty sure about two things, 1) It won't try to cram a bazillion features into an ugly product (Oragami?) and 2) Microsoft probably won't be responsible.
MS missing the point of iPod yet again (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MS missing the point of iPod yet again (Score:4, Insightful)
Then again, I still use a Palm V because I want a PDA to be a simple, small cheap PDA. So I'm probably not the target demographic.
Microsofts Linux/OSX/BSD/AIX killer (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure a lot of killing going on.... supposedly.
What I don't get... (Score:1, Insightful)
I have an RCA MP3 player from around 2002(I think? it was a gift) that has very little capacity, runs on AAA batteries and is basically the little MP3 player that couldn't. In order to make it really worth carrying around spare AAA batteries, you would have to purchase an SD card to expand the available storage, unless you have 4 songs that you absolutely love to hear over and over again. THAT kind of MP3 player is what the iPod was up against when it came out as an MP3 player with a harddrive.
Gee, let me think... $100 for a 32mb (maybe) MP3 player, and then another chunk of change for SD cards to listen to more than 20 minutes of decent sound quality music and changing AAA batteries every day, or $200-300 for an iPod with gigabytes of storage, a rechargeable battery and a great navigation menu that displays the name of the artist and song.
General Public: Hm, let me think about that one, and while I think about it, let me look at the designs of the "other" MP3 players vs the iPod..
/sarcasm a little help making the decision may be necessary.../end sarcasm
at a time when everyone else was creeping into the market and peeking through the doorway to see if there were enough people on the other side in the portable MP3 player market to make it worthwhile to go in, Apple busted down the door and slapped the iPod into the hands of 20-30 year olds and blew the roof off the market. And now everyone is playing catch-up, claiming their latest and greatest will dethrone the iPod.
I'm sorry, but Apple already stormed the market with a great design, the best software for the job, and a legal method of getting the MP3s to the people. Just give up and start selling accessories for iPods and try to make a profit off of things that change color with the beat of the music.
Not THAT ridiculous. (Score:3, Insightful)
That leaves "iPod killer" as the only questionable assertion. Well, here's how I read it: the system will have either a hard drive or a decent amount of flash memory. This would be great on a portable for all sorts of reasons (e.g., you could download the games to the system rather than carrying around 50 tiny cartridges). A WMA/MP3 player would only be one fairly simple app on such a system, so they may as well stick it in there and add another tick on the checklist.
Will it be a better MP3 player than an iPod? No, but who cares? The PS2 is a pretty terrible DVD player (low quality, clunky controls, noisy as heck), but it was that feature that convinced me to buy it over a GameCube.
Sony already tried (Score:5, Insightful)
If Microsoft wishes to do the same thing as Sony, making a "gaming" handheld that does everything but actually play games, they'll get the same results.
Granted, they may make a better movie player than the PSP (depending on the specifics), but Microsoft is already losing the format wars with Apple over music formats (much like Sony) and if they aim for squeezing the "latest and greatest" in graphics and sound technology into the gaming function, it certainly isn't going to be as small as the iPod (like Sony). And, finally, like Sony, there'll be little more than "portable" (i. e. watered-down) versions of console games (read "Halo Lite").
Re:Everything is a 'Killer' (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that the "* killer" tag has pretty much become one of those laughable buzzwords; where when a PR guy says it, you know he's got no idea about what's really going on, and when someone knowledgeable uses it, it's in a sort of sarcastic mocking tone. Basically, any time I see a slashdot headline talking about a "killer", I can be confident that the comments will 95% be people stating lots of reasons why it obviously won't work that way. Let the marketing people have their cute little terms, no one besides themselves is fooled.
Batteries mean you can only "kill" once. (Score:2, Insightful)
I like my DS being separate to my phone because, I can play it and not worry about killing my battery and not being able to receive calls.
I can listen to songs on my mp3 player as I sight-see, and not have to worry that I'm going to kill the battery before I get to the big sights I want to take photos off.
If a business man is on the tube, he likes his blackberry an iPod to be separate because he won't miss any email after listening to music on his commute.
Unless your device can run for over a day - whilst doing everything - continually - then I don't want the stress of balancing battery needs. Portable devices are about reducing stress, "all-in-one" devices don't do that, no matter how many times you write "killer" in the title.
And this is why we (had) monopoly control laws (Score:5, Insightful)
Monopolies are damaging because they can leverage their overwhelming advantage (=money) into new markets, conquering one product segment after another, erecting barriers to entry to new competitors, and most importantly, monopolies can prevent new technologies from dislodging their old tech by using extortion in all sorts of ways (in the classic case, "put Linux in your boxen, in any way, and say good-bye to your Windows discount, hell, good-bye to your Windows boxen).
Microsoft is building "killer" after "killer", using their infinite cash from their Office and Windows monopolies to simply underprice their products in new businesses like game machines and portable media players until their competitors, who don't have monopoly cash, fold. Then, classically, they raise their prices in their new monopoly, then use the cash to move into a new monopoly. This is why we busted the trusts after the Guilded Age. Inevitably, one company will own everything. Microsoft wants a media tax worldwide, wants a piece of every media streamed and stored. Then they'll inevitably move into media creation; hell, that's what they're doing in video games. Vertical lock.
Re:hmm... no (Score:5, Insightful)
No DRM just like you said - and somehow people aren't flocking to it in droves. Could it be that you really would like a product without DRM, but you're a little out of touch with what the masses want?
Re:What it takes to kill an iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
Hype
Plain and simple, what the iPod has is a lot of marketing and hype. As you stated there already are portable digital players with hell more features than the iPod (personally I preffer the iRiver series since I got my frist cd-mp3 player imp-300 a long time ago).
I can think of at least one reason [youtube.com] why Microsoft is not the
Re:hmm... no (Score:2, Insightful)
Granted, most of these devices don't have wifi, but even there, you still have options right now. For example, plenty of Pocket PCs can stream music (or video) over wifi. Drop in a 4GB flash card (some are now under $150) and you've got yourself a perfectly serviceable portable music player that can play streaming as well as downloaded audio. It can also play no-DRM Divx movies, has a wide array of simple games, and can (obviously) serve as a personal organizer.
Re:Replace 'Killer' with 'Competitor' please (Score:3, Insightful)
if microsoft was prepping a true handheld, the rumor mill would have been abuzz. the only handheld gameconsole MS is concerned w/ is the UMPC for now at least.
with lackluster sales of the x360, i dont see MS greenlighting another expensive hardware launch anytime soon. they wouldnt risk splintering development across three [two consoles, if they decide to drop xbox1 support]; its not like they have an army of first party developers, much less third party houses...
The only 'killer' products ... (Score:3, Insightful)