Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview published Sunday that the company has no plans to put up a Zune phone to compete with iPhone.
Robbie Bach, president of Entertainment & Devices Division.
(Credit: Microsoft)On the eve of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, where a new iPhone is rumored to be unveiled, the man who is charge of developing Xbox, Zune, and Windows Mobile began his question-and-answer session with the paper by touting the success of Windows Mobile.
"We will outsell the iPhone," he told the newspaper."We will outsell the BlackBerry."
"We don't make phones ourselves. We don't have any plans to make phones ourselves," the told the paper. "Our focus is on the belief that a phone is a very personal thing. Different people want different types of phones. We think that is going to continue, and we think Windows Mobile is in a great position to service all those different opportunities."
He went on to say that the phone itself is just one component of smartphones' success.
"It's about browsing. It's about music. It's about video. It's about e-mails, text messaging, and photos."
On the topic of mobile browsing, Bach also addressed the issue of the lack of advertising success in mobile Web browsing, saying that it's still a work in progress.
"The business model for browsing on a phone has not gotten itself completely clear yet," he said. "In the PC space, the way people monetize the Internet is through advertising. Now in the phone space, we believe that advertising will be a part of that experience, but it's a different form factor."
Bach also touched on entertainment issues, including Microsoft's backing of the now-largely extinct HD DVD format, pointing out that many consumers say they can't see a substantial picture quality improvement with next-generation discs.
"You have to look at how fundamentally compelling the difference is between a progressive scan DVD player and the picture that it can produce and what you get on a high-definition player. The reality is there is some difference, but most people look at it and say, 'I am not going to pay extra for that.'"
And can we expect to see the company embrace Blu-ray in the next version of its Xbox game console?
"There is nothing to even talk about right now with regard to the next generation. That is so far out that there isn't anything to talk about."
However, CrunchGear is reporting that a tipster with "close friend who works at Microsoft" said they were told that Microsoft will try to upstage Apple on Monday with the announcement that an Blu-ray Xbox 360 will be available by the Christmas holiday shopping season.
Microsoft's Surface computing is the kind of Buck Rogers' technology that can dazzle consumers and boost a company's "cool" factor. But in an interview last week, Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president of Entertainment & Devices Division, said he came close on multiple occasions to deep-sixing the project.
Customers will be able to order drinks by touching a digital image on Surface.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)"I probably thought about killing it every year it was in development," said Bach, the man who forged a reputation as a hit maker by spearheading Microsoft's Xbox game console.
During the interview, at a Microsoft-sponsored dinner attended by a handful of reporters, Bach said that the excitement generated over the technology has taught him more about an interesting metric: "customer delight." I'll get to that later.
Originally code-named Milan, the Surface computer looks like the 1980s sit-down Ms. Pac Man machine. It uses infrared cameras and a projector to create a touch-screen that can respond to multiple users' hand gestures, as well as interact with other objects. Bach said that Surface was in development for about five years in a "pure incubator" environment with 20 Microsoft employees developing the computer.
Surface has wowed audiences everywhere it's been showcased. Nonetheless, serious challenges still lay ahead, such as reducing the price so consumers can afford it as well as shrinking the clunky 22-inch-high table and 30-inch horizontal display.
"We don't want to be in the furniture business," Bach quipped. Microsoft has said it plans to have the consumer version on shelves by 2011.
Right now, the devices are starting to appear in the retail stores of cellular carrier AT&T. Sheraton hotels, Harrah's casinos, and T-Mobile retail locations are also expected to get the machines. At about $10,000, the price is too high to be considered a consumer product. Finding a way to reduce costs, as well as the computer's size, were why Bach was skeptical about Surface as a profit maker.
"I didn't have a clear line of sight on what the business model was," Bach said. "I was always asking myself whether we could afford to keep it."
Surface did have one important cheerleader: Bill Gates.
Gates is a huge proponent of Surface computing. At a gathering last month of CEOs in Redmond, Wash., Gates said he wants to turn everything we touch into a computer: "It will be absolutely pervasive," he said. "When I say everywhere, I mean the individual's office, the home, the living room."
Bach called Gates a "big supporter" of Surface.
Besides generating applause from reviewers, Surface provided another benefit. Bach said he learned about how to gauge "customer delight" better. He cautioned, however, that Microsoft isn't just out to create gee-whiz products--not unless a sound business plan can be found for them.
"The Buck Rogers stuff won't carry the day on its own," Bach said, adding that just because something is cool doesn't mean it's going to make money (See Segway).
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