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The Partnership That Could Have Changed Everything

Posted by Zonk on from the better-than-the-zune dept.

DesertBlade writes "Bloomberg is reporting that, at one point, Microsoft had considered an Apple/iPod partnership before it released its own MP3 player. Microsoft was apparently displeased with MP3 players partnerships they had already made, notably the Creative and Dell models. This information came from court documents introduced in an antitrust lawsuit from Iowa. From the article: 'Microsoft had been working with partners on music devices for at least a year before Apple introduced the iPod in 2001 and catapulted to a dominant position in the market. Microsoft and its partners failed to come up with compelling hardware and had difficulty getting software to properly connect music collections on computers with their devices.' If this Apple/Microsoft partnership was formed how would this have changed the Microsoft and Apple dynamics?"

6 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Wonder what happens when the worst monopolist.... by MerlynEmrys67 · · Score: -1, Troll
    teams up with Microsoft

    Yeah - show me a company that really REALY pushes the bounds of monopolistic behavior worse than apple. Just a matter of Steve Jobs couldn't beat little BillyG at the software game and insisted on selling hardware.

    --
    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
  2. Re:Massive Anti-Trust Case by glitch23 · · Score: -1, Troll

    if Apple and M$ had teemed up, wouldn't that just loose the lawyers en mass?

    Try learning English before using foreign phrases.

    --
    this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
  3. Re:I know... by BrainInAJar · · Score: 0, Troll

    That's unfair, Linux is a fragile kernel as well.

    Any other UNIX should only panic when flaky hardware is involved

  4. Bill Gates owns a lot of Apple by WiseMuse · · Score: -1, Troll

    Bill Gates owns a majority stake of Apple shares. If that's not a partnership, I don't know what is!

    1. Re:Bill Gates owns a lot of Apple by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1, Troll

      Bill Gates owns a majority stake of Apple shares. If that's not a partnership, I don't know what is! Do you have a source for that? If you are talking about the shares of Apple MSFT bought as part of the GUI patent settlement, they sold those shares long before the split.
      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  5. Re:Massive Anti-Trust Case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    if Apple and M$ had teemed up, wouldn't that just loose the lawyers en mass?
    Try learning English before using foreign phrases.
    Funnily enough the one word he did get right--loose--is the one that almost everyone gets wrong. As in "let loose", "you have a loose pussy; think about getting a vag tuck", or "if don't you stop being such a God-damned spelling fascist, someone will come along one day and yank your ball-sack loose."