…but of course, you already knew that.
Bill Gates was fortunate enough to have been interviewed by Peter Jennings (another one of my more favorite people) a night or two ago, and one of the things brought up was the report from last week that the iPod is ubiquitous on the Microsoft campus in Redmond - which I personally don’t doubt for a second.
And he had this to say - you can hit up here for the entire transcript:
JENNINGS: On the subject of music, I read somewhere that about 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a music playing instrument or a music playing device use an iPod.
GATES: Well, I doubt that’s the case. Certainly, the iPod’s a great success.
JENNINGS: Do you have one?
GATES: No, I’m not an iPod user. I use the Creative Zen which is a fantastic product. That’s another space where, even what we have today, whether it’s iPod or the other things are only the start of what we’re gonna have in a few years. People are gonna want choices. These things are going to be smaller or better, cheaper. So, music has changed. The age of the CD is really coming to an end.
JENNINGS: The public likes this tension between you and the others as I’m sure you know. So people want to know do you have an iPod. You say you don’t have. Did iPod beat you in this issue?
GATES: Oh the iPod did a great job, but what Apple’s done there is typically what they do. It’s their, only their one music store, only their device. What we’re doing is providing choices. So it’s like the Apple computer versus the PC. With the PC you can buy from many companies so you get cheaper prices, you get more variety and here with music devices we’re coming in with the same. But they’re a strong leader in the space and I think as we gain share, people will be surprised.
This man cannot stand the fact that Microsoft got just plain beat in the race to get digital music to be a viable, marketable product. Apple completely blew their doors off, and I doubt you’d find many people (if at all) who would disagree with that statement.
Oh, and Bill? A few more things - and for the rest of you, some interpretation:
- “What we’re doing is providing choices.” Read this as follows: “We have a bunch of people lined up through our OS agreements, and they are ready to do our bidding. We provide people with choices in their hardware, but really what we want to do is lock everyone up within one scheme - OURS. Yay for Windows!”
- “They’re a strong leader, and… as we gain share…” Read: “WOW - they have over two-thirds of the market share for digital music players? And they just released a flash player, to hit the only part of the market our partners even thought about controlling? I suppose we’ll have to do to them what we had to do to Sony in the video game market… er… wait a minute…”
- “People will be surprised.” Read: “People are going to be wogboggled by our DRM scheme when we finally decide to try and break into the market. If you thought iTMS was restrictive, I can’t wait until you see what I’ve got lined up for you…”
Say what you will, but I just don’t think anything will challenge the iPod for a long, long time, unless Apple royally screws up in what they’re doing. The iPod is hot, hot, hot - and it stays that way. It’s a great device, it is a joy to use, it is easy (you don’t even need a manual), and it’s even a fashion accessory or status symbol of a kind.
If this guy actually thinks that a WMA-based player is going to challenge Apple in this market, with their superior marketshare, far more loose DRM, and positive image in the mainstream, then I want two packs of whatever he’s smoking.
Immediately.