Thursday, May 12, 2005
Gates: Mobile Phones Will Supplant iPod
Posted by Kent Pribbernow in "NEWS" @ 06:00 PM
"Microsoft founder Bill Gates sees mobile phones overtaking MP3s as the top choice of portable music player, and views the raging popularity of Apple's iPod player as unsustainable, he told a German newspaper. "As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run," he said in an interview published in Thursday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung."
I don't share Bill's belief that dedicated audio players will be shoved aside by cell phones, at least not in the immediate future. However, I do see media-rich phones ultimately replacing low-end portable audio gear and flash-based media players (like iPod shuffle), but there will always be a need for purpose built hardware. A phone just can't perform those functions as well as iPods or other dedicated media players. Until recently I owned three handhelds with digital audio capability; a Tungsten T5, Tapwave Zodiac, and Dell Axim X50v. During the entire period of use I NEVER used any of them for serious multimedia use because of the poor user experience these devices offered. Transferring music was a tragic comedy, especially on the PalmOS hardware. When I wanted to listen to my audio library I always reached for the iPod, simply because it was better suited and more convenient for that purpose.
Could this change in the future? Absolutely. But Windows Mobile...and all other mobile platforms...have a long way to go before they can replace my digital audio player. Sorry Bill.
I don't share Bill's belief that dedicated audio players will be shoved aside by cell phones, at least not in the immediate future. However, I do see media-rich phones ultimately replacing low-end portable audio gear and flash-based media players (like iPod shuffle), but there will always be a need for purpose built hardware. A phone just can't perform those functions as well as iPods or other dedicated media players. Until recently I owned three handhelds with digital audio capability; a Tungsten T5, Tapwave Zodiac, and Dell Axim X50v. During the entire period of use I NEVER used any of them for serious multimedia use because of the poor user experience these devices offered. Transferring music was a tragic comedy, especially on the PalmOS hardware. When I wanted to listen to my audio library I always reached for the iPod, simply because it was better suited and more convenient for that purpose.
Could this change in the future? Absolutely. But Windows Mobile...and all other mobile platforms...have a long way to go before they can replace my digital audio player. Sorry Bill.
