It doesn't seem that long ago when Microsoft was the feared dominant invincible beast. Now, they are just floudering trying again and again to make money off of anything besides Windows and Office. This just seems like such another wasted effort by Microsoft. Here's an idea; come out with a great user-friendly product. It will never happen.

Ploy? Floundering?

I must be losing some of my fanboyism because I don't see this as anything like that at all.

I think this is an excellent marketing decision on Microsoft's part. It's a great way to counter Apple's lock-in stragety with the iTMS (I'm amazed the record companies agreed to do it.)

If their music player and software both work on a Mac and their new music player offers things the iPod doesn't, I would actually consider switching to their product.

Realistically though, I doubt that what they come out with will be fully compatible with the Mac (if at all), and if it is, I find it unlikely that there will be enough benefit over the next iPod offering for me to switch.

As per another post I made:

Regarding the news about Microsoft giving free copies of already purchased iTunes music, this could be a good thing for some people, but it will have a very small overall affect on the market. What many people are forgetting is that most of the people who use PCs and would think about switching to a Microsoft player are the same people who don't want to bother learning new software, buying new hardware, and going through the process of moving their music (and video) library over to another program and player.

When Steve strong-armed the record companies into keeping the songs at 99 cents he had the upper hand. He has the only *popular* legal music service out there and the record companies know they have to get into the internet download realm.

I'm wondering if Microsoft won't offer the "tiered" music pricing that the record companies wanted so all the companies will flock to them (assuming Microsoft product gains in popularity) and threaten to drop Apple, forcing Apple to buy into the same pricing scheme.

Any thoughts?

I'm sure Microsoft will offer the record companies anything they want. They have always offered RIAA and MPAA everything. Obviously, this is not what the users want, because what users want <> RIAA + MPAA wants.

I'll believe Microsoft can beat the iPod when I see it.

Seems plausable. Microsoft has the cash to do this and generates substantial free cash flow that it wouldn't even impact the bottom line (if it does, it would be minimal).

This tactic would likely lure away some iPod users and would take away some of Apple's market share in this sector.

It will be interesting to see what transpires.