Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

No $50 iPod Clone From Microsoft

Posted by timothy on from the or-anyone-for-that-matter dept.

dncsky1530 writes "In a previous Slashdot story, the Denver Post ran an article talking about a portable music player that would have the look and feel of an iPod. Microsoft stated that they will not be manufactoring such a device, Mehdi, "I've spent time with a bunch of hardware manufacturers who will launch hardware products when we ship our service that will look and feel as good as the iPod product. And they will undoubtedly be a little bit less expensive and so head-to-head against Apple...""

3 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Re:50 for the player, but probably by DA-MAN · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I believe Apple has the monopoly on charging $100 for minor upgrades, ala OSX.

    --
    Can I get an eye poke?
    Dog House Forum
  2. Re:One word: Baseless. by Jim_Kim · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    XP is sold more than any other operating system on earth. You should rather hold your own "toque" before telling others to do so. Its UI is also heavily copied in many other systems, including Mac OS X.

  3. Re:One word: Baseless. by Jim_Kim · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    OS X wasn't complete until Panther edition, and Apple charged 400$ for that since you weren't offered any upgrade price. Also Apple always offer things before other companies, but that's because their market is very small, so they don't have to worry a lot about support, and there are plenty of people to pay 400$ to Apple to eventually get a real OS. Car comparisons do not make sense in the software industry. If you make the best product and sell a lot, you can reinvest the money you earn back to the R&D as in Microsoft's case. For Apple, though, they have to charge more because they don't sell enough. In fact just check out the prices of shareware. For example, some of the crap out there is around 50$ or 100$. Moveable Type is charging 100$ or more for a blogging tool, but the price of Word itself is around 100$. Clearly charging more for software means that you don't sell enough, thus you have to charge more. Luckily Apple has brand recognition and many people try to make Apple look like a nice company and some people fall into that trap. Apple has to heavily advertise and make their products look cool and attractive to be able to justify their ridiculous high prices.