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For the company that dominates PC operating systems, desktop software suites and e-mail software and has a darn good business in everything from databases to video games, it's an unaccustomed label.
Can the latest version of Microsoft's music software, Windows Media Player 11, be the first in many steps to dropping that underdog tag? While there's little question that Apple Computer is the company to beat in digital music, technology critics and analysts say Microsoft is starting to get its act together.
Video:
Windows Media Player 11 reviewed
CNET's Molly Wood shows off the newest version of Microsoft's digital jukebox.
Last week, a test version of WMP 11, the company's latest digital jukebox software, was compared favorably by critics to Apple's iTunes. Technology critic Paul Thurrott, for example, gushed in a review on his Web site that despite being an avid iTunes user, he found himself "drawn to Windows Media Player 11" because it "offers dramatically better performance" than iTunes.
So what's to like? Industry insiders cheered the close partnerships Microsoft formed with MTV Networks and iRiver. Redmond helped design Urge, MTV's new subscription music service, and plans to include it in WMP 11. In addition, Microsoft made sure WMP 11 worked seamlessly inside Clix, iRiver's digital music player--the first to feature WMP 11?which also hit the market last week.
Many critics say it's a big improvement over what Microsoft has done in the past, but there's no question Bill Gates & Co. have a long way to go to catch their decades-old rival in this realm.
Removing the guessworkApple has sold more than 50 million iPods and controls 70 percent of the worldwide digital-music market, according to analysts. No doubt, Apple's innovative designs have had a lot to do with it. So has the simplicity of Apple's digital music experience. The iPod and the company's online music store are designed to work together and remove the guesswork for consumers.
The same has not been true, critics argue, for Microsoft and its partners. Because it doesn't control both ends, Microsoft has not been able to deliver the slick, out-of-the-box experience that Apple has offered.
Of course, tech historians may recall that Apple's go-it-alone approach to the PC was one of the reasons Microsoft ultimately gained control of the desktop. People initially scoffed at Microsoft's operating system. But with every new version, it got a little better. Microsoft also partnered with far more PC and software makers and, ultimately, drove Apple into a corner of the market.
But is a stereo the same as a PC? That's the million-dollar question. While PC users are accustomed to a complex experience (some would say they don't know any better) people have for decades listened to music on stereo systems that, even at their most complex, are far easier to use than a PC.
For a company to win the digital-music market, say analysts, it needs to duplicate that stereo system simplicity.
"The products by Apple's rivals only confuse consumers," said Shaw Wu, a financial analyst with American Technology Research. "The public doesn't know their names or which device is better from the next. Apple's approach is pretty simple and straightforward."
That's what Microsoft is trying to deal with in WMP 11. Analysts say striking alliances with a select number of music content providers and hardware makers signals that Microsoft is serious about confronting that complexity obstacle.
"That's the biggest game changer--total collaboration," said Jason Hirschhorn, MTV's chief digital officer.
Out of sync in the pastWMP 11 represents the possibility that Microsoft can deliver a streamlined alternative to Apple.
"Vendors and Microsoft were often out of sync in the past," said Susan Kevorkian, analyst with IDC. "Some devices would only support a la carte song sales and others were subscription compatible only. Now you have a variety of established music services and devices working with Microsoft, and the ecosystem is increasingly straightforward."
Microsoft execs argue that the game has just begun.
"Remember the digital market represents only 5 percent of the total market," said Geoff Harris, product unit manager for Windows Media Player. "That means that 95 percent are still buying in traditional means. At the end of the day, this (segment) is still in its infancy."
Microsoft and partners could draw some of that market by billing itself as a cheaper alternative to Apple, said analysts. Apple declined to comment for this article.
Alissa Paolella, 19, a journalism student at Ohio University, is a big fan of singer Ani DiFranco, but has yet to buy a digital music player. Paolella said she would consider a cheaper alternative to the iPod "because everybody else has one."
There's one problem: She doesn't know the name of a single rival to the iPod and hadn't heard about last week's launch of iRiver's Clix.
Of course, that's what Microsoft is trying to change. WMP 11 supports subscription services and MTV's Urge will offer customers two pricing models: They can choose to pay 99 cents per song or subscribe to a monthly all-you-can-eat download service for $9.95 or $14.95.
MTV and Microsoft are billing these subscription services as the most economical way to discover a lot of new music without going broke.
But until someone other than Apple comes up with an easy-to-use music system, don't expect Apple to lose its grip on the young market.
"If my mom asks me what she should buy, I'm telling her to get an iPod," said Nitin Gupta, an analyst at The Yankee Group. "My brother is more tech savvy, and he might be interested in doing more than what Apple provides. I might tell him to try one of the new MP3 players."
See more CNET content tagged:
critic, digital music, Apple Computer, MTV, Windows Media
Competition = Good news for customers
URGE is no iTunes overall, but it is really sleek and cool. And it does beat iTunes if you like to discover new music. For example, by including audio podcasts from mp3 blog superstars like FluxBlog (fluxblog.com), Microsoft seems to be trying to tap into the undeground music scenes a bit, too.
Now, if only we could do something about the DRM issue.
Give it an artist you like, and it will start streaming tracks that its
team of music analysts (humans) have classified as similar
across a number of vectors.
I often have it on all day.
In conclusion, Apple has done its homeworks and produce an exceptional product.
on his Web site that despite being an avid iTunes user, he found
himself "drawn to Windows Media Player 11" because it "offers
dramatically better performance" than iTunes."
LOL, Paul Thurrott is an M$ tool, what else is he going to say but
gush over a Microsoft product... pretty much the same as any CNET
"news" :/
and it performs admirably with iTunes.
On its way from Suzhou China as we speak is a MacBook.
When it gets here Wednesday, within 10 minutes of delivery
I will be playing shared music from my G4.
Good luck M$.
conclusion, but doesn't clarify what aspect he is referring to.
Faster at moving through the interface? Faster at loading online
store offerings? Playing back compressed audio with less CPU
overhead? What else is there?
I can imagine there could be better performance in the interface,
given that WMP is Windows native and Apple's iTunes is basically
a Mac program being emulated on Windows (look at the blue
scrollbars, etc). iTunes is still pretty smooth to use though.
For loading online content, given that it's a beta store and
doesn't yet have millions of users taking bandwidth from its
servers, I could imagine it is.
He also says WMP is better looking? After spending years being
puzzled by the cryptic little symbols dotted around the WMP
interface, all I can say is thank god for the "ugly" but simple
brushed metal iTunes.
"because everybody else has one."
Some people just don't get it and that's M$ only chance - mopping
up the stragglers
1.)Offers both pay-per-song and monthly subscription service options.
2.)Offers song downloads in both compressed and lossless formats.
Don't underestimate Microsoft's ability to eventually surpass Apple, and don't underestimate Apple's ability to "blow it". The battle has just started - check back in another five years.
Gee MS, you must be getting old. It only took you one attempt with Netscape!
Don't underestimate Apple's ability to always surpass Microsoft at
everything they do, before they 'do' it, and don't underestimate
Microsoft's ability to "blow".
Optimally if APple wanted to squish Microsoft they would need to:
1. Offer a cheaper subscription service (mind you you can't put these on your MP3 player (no one is talking about that!)) Maybe tie it in to .Mac
2. A new more inovative player iPod Video 2.0
3. A new more robust player.
Apple is dominant... but they have blown dominance b4.
PS- im an apple fan
I am not sure if it would play protected music. But it can sure play wma and wmv files. I recently read somewhere that Microsoft would stop making newer versions of Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer for Mac. I think this makes sense as the market share of Apple is only 3% and it may not be economically viable to make products for that market
My butt cheeks could come up with better advertising than that..I thought Apple was a great marketing company...Guesss not.
ps: 1/16th apple fan.
"Technology critic Paul Thurrott, for example, gushed in a review on his Web site that despite being an avid iTunes user, he found himself "drawn to Windows Media Player 11" because it "offers dramatically better performance" than iTunes."
That's a subjective statement! I prefer a simple user interface where everything is easily accessible. Podcast, Audiobooks, TV Shows, soon movies, and oh also 2 million songs. That to me is a dramatically better performance. You want Audiobooks (Audible is in partnership with Apple), go into the Audiobooks section, one-click, and a few seconds later the book is downloaded ready to sync with your iPod. No signing into different accounts, or going into different services, everything is integrated into iTunes.
"The products by Apple's rivals only confuse consumers," said Shaw Wu, a financial analyst with American Technology Research. "The public doesn't know their names or which device is better from the next. Apple's approach is pretty simple and straightforward."
Exactly.
"For a company to win the digital music market, say analysts, it needs to duplicate that stereo system simplicity."
That's the very reason Apple has taken the lead (with help from advertising sure). Consumer electronics are not PCs. They are consumer electronics and should be simple enough for the average consumer who wants to transition from a Sony Walkman to do so. I laugh when I see PVP/MP3 trying to replicate the Windows PC environment using (Folders, Root file, etc).
A good start but ways to go to catch up to the iPod/iTunes
iTunes is in twenty-one countries
Music, TV Shows, Vid/Potcast, Audiobooks, all integrated beautifully into iTunes, that then syncs an exact replica to the iPod, no guess work needed.
Audible might be easier to use with iTunes, but it works equally good with other devices. Audible is compatible with more than a hundred 'non-iPod' portable music players. Besides, how many people use Audible anyways? I haven't met even one yet.
Microsoft is trying to have a stereo system like simplicity with it's Windows XP Media Center Edition and a newer version in upcoming Vista. It integrates all the media, from Videos, Pictures, Music and TV into one unit, which until now was not possible with a stereo system. If you try it once, you will know what I am talking about
Microsoft is the underdog in this space?
Don't they already dominate enough with their respective
monopolies?
But hey competition is good for consumers, thanks Apple.
At least with Microsoft music software, users can choose different music player hardware, and different music services.
iPod/iTunes is a closed Apple-only system.
Apple is the monopoly in this space?
their problems are going to start happening when two things occur:
1. companies start consistantly making players as good and better than apple
2. the ipod craze/fad/etc wears off
i'm not saying thier whole dominance is because of the image they've created, but it largely is. they created a valid image as "the mp3 player" because it was the best. but it's been seen over and over that as everyone gets an ipod (dick cheney has one for God's sake, how uncool is that??) people will want one less and less. as those sentiments grow, someone will come out with a great player and give everyone who didnt' want an ipod the option they're looking for.
that's where apple's problems will start. another player will become all the rage and people will say "wow, that's hot, i want it!" but when they have to stick with an ipod because apple closed the system, there will be massive backlash by the people who bought one because it was an ipod and not because they're the "apple faithful." granted, some people will stay because they can't justify giving up the library they've purchased, but they'll cease to preach the "apple gospel" of how great it is.
apple needs to open up it's DRM to stay dominant or they will have to make the hands down best MP3/video players or they will see the rock on one side and hard place on the other.
approach to the PC was one of the reasons Microsoft ultimately
gained control of the desktop. People initially scoffed at
Microsoft's operating system. But with every new version, it got
a little better. Microsoft also partnered with far more PC and
software makers and, ultimately, drove Apple into a corner of
the market."
This quote slays me. The situation with Mac vs. PC was entirely
different than what we now have with iPods vs. everybody else.
Business & Corporate IT made MS what it is today. The Mac
NEVER, ever had more than 10 to 20 % market share at it's
height. If Apple had made a seamless transition between the
Apple II and the Mac, it might have held on to the early lead it
had with personal computers. Apple was also one of the worst
managed companies from the late 80s to the late 90s. That had
more to do with their small market share than their "failure" to
license the OS.
With the iPod, however, corporate IT is not part of the equation.
The iPod is a purely consumer product and consumers are
unwilling to put up with the same crap from MS that corporate
types seem to accept blindly.
That's a fine bit of reporting - and of course, dragging misapplied history into the equation. When MS controls a monopoly (desktop, servers), they are deadly (to most companies and as governments have determined - illegal) but when they have a fair fight where CONSUMERS get to choose - they do not choose MS because unlike corporations, we are NOT willing to pay for something that might work years down the line ... hence MS's failure in MSN, the internet search, MS watches, MS home networking, etc, etc ... even the XBox has cost them $10 billion dollars to sell 25 million boxes - success?
MTV has been selling music online for YEARS 9in case you decide to do research next time) and so has MS without success - and the latest reviews, WMA 11 is still difficult to use ... and ipod competitors? Like the one you cited? The screen turns itself off after a minute - no, not dims itself - TURNS ITSELF OFF ...
Yes, right now, the only people who are not buying ipods are:
a) cheapskates
b) people with psychological problems in buying anything popular - that if it's popular, it must be dumb.
That's not much of an audience. It is an audience - just not much of one because they will CLEARLY not be buying tracks online because they are cheapskates.
Is it better than before ... but it's 1965 and MS is B&W and the ipod is COLOR TV - what are you going to buy so you don't have to explain to your neighbors?
and think before you use the work cheapskates for people who don't buy their music online... Just in case you don't know, 95% music is still sold through conventional means like CDs and cassettes and only 5% is sold online. I think the word is 'Smart Buying' which most appropriatly describes people who don't buy iPods and don't fall into the viscious cycle of iTunes store and iPod.
Like someone said before on one of these forums, apple has sold 50 million iPods and 1 billion tracks, giving an average of only 20 tracks per iPod. So either they are big fools, buying a 30 gig iPod to store only 20 songs or they are buying it elsewhere (outside iTunes), or in your own words, being cheap. And if you are an iPod owner, you fall in one of these two categories.
I guess they will have to bundle every song known to man in the next version of Windows.
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It has lower marketshare for 2 main reasons. 1st and foremost is Steve Jobs LEFT in 1985, 2 years into the early days of the Mac. If this wouldn't have happened, Macs would enjoy very similar marketshare that the iPod enjoys today and will for decades to come.
2nd, when Steve left Apple management maintained high pricing when they should have became real and lowered pricing to keep Windows out of the market. Apple is doing EXACTLY that with the iPod so there is no way a 2nd competitor can emerge.
So PLEASE Wake UP to the FACT, the Mac Marketshare is NO WAY related to iPod Marketshare, unless you TOTALLY ignore what actually happen.
Wise up Authors... you don't have a CLUE when you spout nonsense, based on the WRONG FACTS.
Both the iPod and new Macs running OSX will increase marketshare for many years to come.
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Or if you think you can't accomplish that, maybe you shouldn't read the articles on this website...
I must admit in liking their xbox 360, but that's about it. I like the Office Excel/Access, but I think Office 2007 will mess all that up and I am going to be a hater of that update.
money?
They basically haven't produced anything significant in the last
few years except security updates. They have an OS that has
stalled in production several times. The OS is practically five
years old already and has never been out of beta in its five year
history. They have a gaming machine that will eventually lose to
Sony's Playstation. They've come up with such a gimmicky online
service that only serves to extract more money from its
customers called LIVE. They have an online music service that
really in all honesty, won't show any real profit unless Itunes and
Ipod all of a sudden disappear. They are seriously trying to
compete in search by using their aging brand name in the hopes
that people will still view them as a competitor, certainly there
hasn't been any real innovativeness coming out of Redmond in
the last five years except, to be frank their practice of copying
others. I mean how long should this lie of a company surivive....
and how does Microsoft existence help consumers if they
haven't really shown any real innovativeness in this industry?
Just look at these screenshots: http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/wmp11_review_06.jpg
http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/wmp11_review_03.jpg
This time, let's see if iTunes copies this feature to be as nice looking as WMP 11
music store. And, you don't have to drag and drop each one,
you can do your entire library automatically. Or, haven't you
been paying attention? I see from your other comments that
you have a psychological problem with anything Apple.
Drag and drop actually WORKS in media player? Wow, that IS
news! You mean it 'works' in the Microsoft sense (hardly at all)
or in the Apple sense (as any rational person would expect.)
"Despite being an avid iTunes user for the past few years, I find
myself drawn to Windows Media Player 11. It's better looking,
has a better user interface, and offers dramatically better
performance than Apple's entry. What's lacking are iPod
integration and a few iTunes-related niceties that I've come to
expect, such as integrated support for podcasts and a decent
tag editor. Unfortunately, these are basically must-have items
for me, so I won't be switching to WMP 11."
In case you don't know, Blu-ray Disc is backed a quite a few companies including Apple and similarly, HD DVD is suppored by a couple of companies including Microsoft.
Here come the interesting part.... Blu-ray disc supports Windows Media 9 codec, which means, it would play WMV and WMA files. Just in case you don't believe me, follow the link http://www.bluraydisc.com/top/search/Article-14883.html
and.. it doesn't support MOV and AAC format
...and just to remind the Apple fanatics... Apple supports Blu-ray and Microsoft doesn't
What actually happened is now I'm using WMP 11 more than I'm using iTunes. It's extremely easy to use(then again, I've had experience in most mainstream media players). Plus the fact that I can hook up mu Nano to it has stopped me from using iTunes almost completely. I do however regurlarly check iTunes for podcasts, since I was amazingly dissapointed that WMP doesn't offer support for that(or if it does, it's not boasted as it in iTunes)
I say to everyone to at least try it. Reviews however positive or negative, do not give an accurate representation of the design of this player. Fantastic Microsoft, you've won me over, for now.
Really.
- MS should also kill Symantec, another market lost to monopoly
- by technewsjunkie May 23, 2006 3:03 AM PDT
- So, MS can't protect it's software from virus, spam, etc, so what is it
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (124 Comments)doing? It's entering a market (antivirus) that has been vibrant (there
are so many holes to patch!) and will close that market because no
can compete after MS enters a market.
Try getting Venture Capital for any software that competes head to
head with Office, or Windows, or Powerpoint, or...
Game over for Symantec and they know it. Others will follow. Open
market? Competition? Choice?