Microsoft Launches Portable Music Player

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Microsoft Launches Portable Music Player

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday October 30, 2003 @11:27AM from the crowded-marketplaces dept.

prostoalex writes "Microsoft announced Portable Media Center, a digital music player, to be available in the second half of 2004. The announcement follows Dell's foray into portable digital music. Microsoft plans to license their software for the Media Center to third-party manufacturers as well. Samsung Electronics, Sanyo, ViewSonic, and iRiver are already on the list. The actual Microsoft-branded devices are promised to start at $350."

20 of 382 comments (clear)

So... by Oen_Seneg · 2003-10-30 11:29 · Score: 5, Funny

Are we going to see a blog photo of 50-odd iPods being delivered to Redmond in the next few weeks?
Far too little, far too late by GMFTatsujin · 2003-10-30 11:31 · Score: 4, Funny

In *2004*???

I'd been holding out on buying a MP3-enabled device until Microsoft put one out. Thank goodness the wait is almost* over!

GMFTatsujin
* For high values of "almost"
1. Re:Far too little, far too late by tekiegreg · 2003-10-30 11:40 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I was thinking that myself, anyone else but me think the market is just a little saturated right now? What does MS offer that nobody else does in the digital music market? Better rights control for the artist? Better for them I presume but won't help sales much...somehow this digital music player will have to find a niche that helps people.
  
  Either that or maybe, as usual, the MS brand will make the music player sell like hotcakes (though at the same time MS isn't without it's failures aka MS Bob...*shiver*).
  
  --
  ...in bed
2. Re:Far too little, far too late by mcc · 2003-10-30 12:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  My first thought was that they were holding off on releasing it until the release of the X-box 2.
  
  My second thought, and the one I finally settled on, is that this supposed portable music player will BE the x-box 2.
  
  -----
  
  "So we were sitting around at meeting, and someone said, hey, you know, that handheld gaming market is really heating up, what with the GBA2 and the Sony PCP coming out next year. We really ought to throw something in so that we've got a presence in that market too. So we were sitting there trying to figure out what the hypothetical R&D costs would be, but then Rob, you remember Rob, he designed the X-Box controller, he says, "hey, we're doing prototyping, and the X-Box 2 only weighs 6 pounds. that's less than a two-year-old child. Why don't we just do some rebranding, slap some buttons on the side, and release the X-box 2 as a portable game system?" And we got to thinking about it, and we realized, hey, that's a really great idea. Because look at all the things the X-Box 2 can do that the other handhelds can't. You can watch DVDs on it. You can record TV shows on it. You can do LAN play against other X-Box 2s. You can use it as a wireless way to browse the net and use MSN messenger with your friends [aslongasyouareatthemoment pluggedintoabroadbandconnection byanethernetcable]. But the kicker was when we realized, hey, you can use it as a WMA player. That's a broadside RIGHT AT the iPod. I tell you, when we release this baby, Apple's going to be running scared."
  
  --
  Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Re:Does it support ogg vorbis? by bryhhh · 2003-10-30 11:31 · Score: 5, Funny

That's about as likely as it running a Linux kernel.
Nice features by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-30 11:31 · Score: 5, Funny

It supports mp3, wma, and 0E formats. It also can play video and show pictures. I hear the visualization for IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is quite soothing.
It's Out WHEN? by MBCook · 2003-10-30 11:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

...to be available in the second half of 2004.
So why should I care again? By then another revision or two of the iPod will come out and it will only get better. Dell will have improved their product, so will Creative, and everyone else in the industry.
MS may make nice hardware (their mice, keyboards, and joysticks are all great), but why should I care? Tell me next summer and I might listen, but is there ANYONE who is even thinking of buying an MP3 player that won't because of this announcement? I doubt it.

--
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
1. Re:It's Out WHEN? by Greyfox · 2003-10-30 11:38 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  They released a web browser long after everyone else already had, too. Look where we are today.
  As usual, release 1 will suck and release 2 will kill all competition after Microsoft starts implanting them in babies.
  
  --
  I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Future-proofing? by Carnildo · 2003-10-30 11:34 · Score: 5, Interesting

What will happen to people using these things when Microsoft deprecates the WMA format, just like they did with the AVI format?

--
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Ut-oh... by Ianoo · 2003-10-30 11:36 · Score: 5, Interesting

Sounds like Windows CE all over again. Sure, it won't be any good until 2008, but after that, better throw those damned IPods away!

I also find it slightly unbelievable that it plays MP3, a DRM-less media. I thought Microsoft assumed all customers wanted DRM (which is why it's going to feature so much in Longhorn!). Don't tell me they've actually come to their senses and realised that no-one is going to buy a device that only plays licensed music!
Beware the exchange rate by fiannaFailMan · 2003-10-30 11:36 · Score: 5, Informative

From the article:
The iPod comes in three models, ranging from $529 to $799, depending on capacity.
Must be tallking in Ozzie dollars. According to Apple's website it goes from $299 to $499 in US money.

--
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Did anyone RTFA??? by christopher240240 · 2003-10-30 11:41 · Score: 5, Informative

Including the author? This is not a piece of Microsoft hardware...
All your Base... by GSVNoFixedAbode · 2003-10-30 11:42 · Score: 5, Funny

and Treble are belong to us

--
"I am Heisenborg. You will probably be assimilated"
Re:Say what you want about Microsoft... by macshit · 2003-10-30 11:46 · Score: 4, Interesting

Huh? The xbox is clunky, huge, and looks like the industrial design was done by the programmers. It was clearly thrown together quickly from stock parts.

Apple, of course, is completely the opposite, and one of the reasons people buy things like the ipod is the great design (aesthetic, ergonomic, and otherwise).

Somehow I think usoft's tagline is going to have to be something like `It doesn't suck too much, and -- hey -- Windows!'

--
We live, as we dream -- alone....
In Other Security News Today... by morelife · 2003-10-30 11:57 · Score: 4, Funny

Dateline August 23, 2004

Microsoft released Service Pack 9a for its Portable Media Center music device today, much to the relief of hundreds of thousands of Donny and Marie Osmond fans whose music files were being stolen by remote Chinese Linux users using an exploit recently found in the device's Portable Media Messenger Service.

Although Microsoft was quick to release the Security fix, they are still working hard to enlist other popluar music artists (besides Donny and Marie) into their roster of DRM'd Pay-for-Play music.
Jesus Christ people by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-30 12:00 · Score: 5, Funny

Every god damn story on /. has at least fifty "OMG who cares" posts: "Quit posting about SCO" "Quit posting about MSFT" "Quit posting about solar flares" "Quit posting about the 2.6 kernel" "Quit posting about Apple." So I went ahead and fixed the problem for all you whiny bitches out there who can't be bothered to figure out how to filter stories.

Here's the new Slashdot, made especially for those of you who "care less and less".
MS Technology by DrCode · 2003-10-30 12:01 · Score: 4, Funny

Don't you know: Portable music players haven't been invented until Microsoft comes up with one.

(I think it was Petreley who came up with this notion.)
Re:Well my friend... by tgibbs · 2003-10-30 12:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

My business faces ruin. CD sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago.

I'm buying more CDs than I was a year ago. But I'm not buying them from stores, I'm buying them through Amazon.com or half.com, mostly used. CDs I'd never consider at new prices, I'll readily buy used. Most stores focus on selling expensive new CDs, and the used titles are stuffed halfhazard into a bin in a corner.
The difference between Apple and Microsoft by weave · 2003-10-30 13:01 · Score: 4, Insightful

Microsoft loves to pre-announce stuff years in advance. Apple goes to great pains to keep things secret until about the last minute so Steve can grandstand in front of the fans.
Maybe that's why there's always so much excitement when something new comes out from Apple and when Microsoft releases something, it's no big deal.
RTA: Software, not Hardware by kylef · 2003-10-30 14:34 · Score: 4, Interesting

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the first sentence in the article clearly states that "Portable Media Center 2004" is a piece of software, not a new hardware device:
MICROSOFT is jumping into the portable media market, launching software for a new line of mobile devices designed to free digital content from a computer and play music, videos and photos on the go.

It sounds like MS is developing platform software for such devices and will license the platform to the actual hardware vendors (Dell, iRiver, SonicBlue, etc). This seems similar to the kind of relationship Microsoft has with its Smartphone manufacturers: Microsoft supplies the software, Motorola et al. supply the gadgets.