by Playfuls Staff |
29th January 2006
After Apple, now it is Microsoft turn to be in the center of the rumors. Peter Moore said in a interview for BusinessWeek that Microsoft is thinking to go one step further in the digital entertainment market and launching a portable entertainment device. [more]
Because Xbox 360 is already a very strong brand, Moore implied that Microsoft should consider a portable device based on its console gaming.
Although, according to InformationWeek, a spokeswoman from Microsoft called the BusinessWeek story "speculation," she confirmed that Microsoft was considering its own music player, along with many other projects stemming from a major reorganization announced last year.
The analysts believes that a portable device based on Xbox may be a brilliant success for Microsoft and even Steve Jobs, the lord of the iPod, had said at one point that Microsoft should own its portable music/video player.
But launching a portable entertainment player is such a good idea for the Redmond company? After 6 years, the iPod continues to dominate the MP3 players market, despite the efforts on more entertainment-focused companies, such as Creative, Philips, Samsung, iRiver or Toshiba. For Microsoft, the digital entertainment market is still something new and even the fate of Xbox 360 is still unclear, until Sony will unveil its gaming console, Play Station 3.
We must agree that Xbox is well established as a gaming brand (even the sales of Xbox are still behind those of Play Station 2) but converting the popularity of this device in a different market, entertainment, (and by this we mean music and video) is a hard task, even for Microsoft. And there is already a strong competition represented by Sony Play Station Portable.
And let’s not forget that we are talking about a company which is mainly focused on software and not on the hardware side of the tech business. So maybe for Microsoft it’s better to stay focused on Windows Vista, rather then trying to conquer iPod.
