James Delahunty
13 May 2005 8:47
Bill Gates believes that the dominance of Apple's iPod music player over the MP3 market will not last for much longer. He is not the only one sceptical about the device; Dell chief executive Kevin Rollins also believes the iPod is a passing fad. Gates' comments come just days after Microsoft rolled out their new Operating Systems for mobile devices, Windows Mobile 5.0. Gates believes that it looks increasingly likely that hardware MP3 players will be replaced soon by mobile phones that are capable of storing large amounts of music.
Bill told a German publication that the iPod dominance will reflect what happened to the Mac in its fight with Windows. "You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface - like the iPod today, and then lost its position," Gates is quoted as telling leading German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
According to Gates, 40 handset manufacturers are shipping 68 types of device running Windows. There is certainly a lot to fight for in this market. JupiterReasearch estimates that expects six per cent of adults will purchase an iPod during the next year while other manufactures like Dell and Creative Labs are close behind in people's purchasing choices.
Source:
The Register