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iPod Most Popular Music Player on Microsoft Campus

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the along-with-everywhere-else dept.

bblazer writes "Wired is running an article about how despite the displeasure of management, the iPod is the most popular music player on the Microsoft campus. The article states that 80% of those who have digital music players have an iPod. Employees have even started using different headphones to be a bit more stealthy about it."

3 of 1,017 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bill buys Apple? by Golias · · Score: 5, Informative

    They did. They also paid an "undisclosed" ammount of money under the table to settle any remaining possibility of litigation over stolen technologies, and agreed on a plan which would allow MS to make future purchases of Apple's OS breakthroughs.

    However, in their haste to hype a "Microsoft buys Apple" story, the press often ignores three important facts about the purchase:

    1. They were non-voting shares.

    2. $150 Million is a very tiny percentage of Apple's publicly-traded shares.

    3. Microsoft has already sold them off, and made a huge profit doing so.

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  2. Re:Bill buys Apple? by AstroDrabb · · Score: 5, Informative
    the only way it threatens MS is in the fact that it totally ignores their pointless, me-too, proprietary .wma crapmat.
    Huh? How is that not significant? Do you have any idea how much money MS spent on their WMA format and DRM? Tons of development cash and marketing cash went into their media format/platform? MS is hoping to get a bunch of royalties off of their media/DRM platform. If their platform is not widely adopted or replaced by AAC/FairPlay, it puts a big dent in potential revenues for MS from multimedia.

    There is also the other factor of exposure to Apple products. The more consumers that buy Apple iPods, the more that may just buy a Mac Mini, eMac, iMac, iBook or PowerBook. That means less revenue to MS for their OS cash-cow.

    I personally hope Apple kicks their butt with the iPod and become the defacto digital music format. The latest home DVD player I bought can play MP3's and WMA files. Maybe the next-gen of DVD players will drop WMA and pick up AAC w/FairPlay.

    MS has a lot to lose if they don't control the major digital music format.

    --
    If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
    it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
  3. Re:I wonder... by NaruVonWilkins · · Score: 5, Informative

    Excuse me - I'm in the media group, and the only people I know of on my team who have a portable media player have an iPod. In fact, some of the people who work on portable devices have an iPod. I can't speculate as to the reason, but I will point out that Apple is still ahead of the curve in releases. Sure, you can find a little Samsung device that has the same features as the Mini, but it's hard to find. Apple has their own store, and they're a much more recognized brand.