Microsoft loves the iPod
Well, the campus does. Mac users are going to love this one:
"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."
The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source. So popular is the iPod, executives are increasingly sending out memos frowning on its use.
Go read the whole thing. Not only is it amusing, but it has a lot of buried tidbits I've noticed as well. One thing it doesn't touch upon is the status symbol aspect of the iPod -- you're not cool if you don't have an iPod, even if you're me. Well, maybe not me.
The competition really has its work cut out for it here. At this point it's not enough to be sexy or good, you have to be an iPod. Price and bang for buck do matter, but not for the people in the tax brackets we're talking about.
Interestingly enough, it's good to remember that that kind of intense brandwidth always cut both ways -- if for any reason the iPod stumbles hard and gets badged with uncool, it's uncool forever, not just whatever model had problems.
Posted by drunkenbatmanFebruary 03, 2005, at 03:43 AM
Comments (8)
Posted by: Skatch at February 3, 2005 05:20 AM
I'd take the article with a grain of salt. If you read carefully what it's based upon, it's one anonymous management member. It sounds like he made a casual estimate, saying something like "oh, probably 80% of people here have an iPod", and now this figure is being reported as gospel. I highly doubt it.
That aside, it is interesting to hear a bit about how it's viewed by some parts of Microsoft from the inside.
Posted by: Jon H at February 3, 2005 09:05 AM
"On the other hand the iPod must be diluting Apple's R&D, engineering and human interface design efforts, leaving less resource to go into developing Macs and OSX."
Considering how the iPod is largely made up of off-the-shelf parts, I'm not sure how much technical R&D is involved.
Posted by: Nacente at February 3, 2005 11:14 AM
Yes ;) I like that kind of news
Posted by: Rae at February 3, 2005 11:42 AM
Heheh. I find that very ironic. But still find myself wanting one. Badly.
Hey there, DB. I am finding you to be the consummate gambler. "You gotta know when to hold 'em..."
P.S. I rarely answer e-mails from bloggers; keeps everything on the up-and-up, you know. I stick to comments :D
Posted by: GC at February 3, 2005 05:27 PM
I don't get all the bitching about the price of an iPod. I got my 15GB just after the 4Gs came out for $200 at Amazon, and my wife's for ~$170. Why is it that when folks do price comparisons that they always buy Apple off the shelf at top dollar, but their PC gear at every bargain basement sale and rebate? BTW the price vs bang for buck is fucking great as far as I'm concerned. Especially over the gerneric piece of shit I had earlier.
Posted by: Kevin at February 3, 2005 10:38 PM
I think the iPod is part and parcel of the core business of Apple. Jobs has stated that the "desktop computer war is over" and the Mac is the digital hub of the digital lifestyle. He also stated that Apple intended to be one of the ten largest Internet companies. So Apple leaves head-on conflict with Microsoft for the office (text, numbers) and moves to newer, more promising fields (multimedia).
Subsequently, Apple begins branching out into digital media, buying several small software companies (Emagic, etc). The Mac/OS X and creative apps are the digital media production end - both for the professional (FCP/Logic on PowerMac/Powerbook), pro-sumer (Express on iMac/iBook), and home user (iLife on iMac/iBook/eMac/Mac mini). Xserve, etc are for digital media storage and distribution. Apple gets the Quicktime format adopted as a standard by MPEG and 3G.
Alongside that, Apple begins to move on digital media consumption for consumers and the home. It needs to establish Quicktime. It does it through the Mac, iTunes, and the iPod, but quickly realizes that Quicktime is so crucial that it extends iTunes and iPod to the PC. The iPod and future consumer electronics are aiming to establish the Mac and its creative software as the digital media production computer. iTMS is helping Apple to become a big Internet presence.
And here we are today. Music was the first consumer area. Definitely more to come. The iPod is not a loss of focus on the Mac; it is an integral key to Apple's future in digital media production, distribution, and consumption.
Posted by: Sharpe at February 4, 2005 01:33 AM
"It sounds like he made a casual estimate, saying something like "oh, probably 80% of people here have an iPod", and now this figure is being reported as gospel. I highly doubt it."
It's seems Scoble was having the same problem interpreting it. Read the quote carefully. The percentage refers to users who own portable music player, not the total percentage of Microsoft employees. It's not very hard to believe, after all, iPod has 92% marketshare of all hard disk based players. It's not out of the realm of possibility that only a few of MS buyers bought flash players and non-iPod hard disk players.
The iPod seems to me to be a two-edged sword for Mac users.
On one side the iPod is buying Apple a lot of mindshare, generating revenue, and is possibly going to increase Mac sales due to the 'halo' effect.
On the other hand the iPod must be diluting Apple's R&D, engineering and human interface design efforts, leaving less resource to go into developing Macs and OSX. It has certainly diluted the Mac press, with many Apple oriented web sites devoting much space to iPodery. Is this detrimental to the Mac? Only time will tell us whether Steve is going to roll Apple into a digital media company or whether the flirtation with media is a phase that'll leave Apple once again able to concentrate on the core business of Macintosh.