Let The iWars Begin!

I'm not the only one on the anti-ipod kick.

Microsoft Corp. will ally with Toshiba Corp., Victor Co. of Japan, NTT DoCoMo Inc. and five other companies to offer music and video distribution services and media players to compete against Apple Computer Inc.

The companies will develop a portable music and video player for the Japanese market, according to a Microsoft press release dated yesterday. The device would challenge Apple's iPod digital music player, the best-selling device that plays songs and other media downloaded from the Internet or copied from compact discs.

Microsoft will develop the software while consumer electronics makers Toshiba and Victor, will make the portable device.

DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone operator, last month said it would offer a handset that is compatible with Microsoft's software, and that lets customers transfer Windows format music files from their personal computers to their cell-phones

The thing is...what do they really think they're going to come up with that will knock off the iPod? I mean, there are literally hundreds of mp3 players out there - quite a number of which are visually and operationally more appealing than the iPod - and none of them have been able to topple the fervor Apple people have for their products.

Sony couldn't do it. Sandisk couldn't do it. Creative Labs' "Zen", Samsung's "Yepp", Dell's "Jukebox", RCA's "Lyra", the Rio, the iRiver...all these sound familiar?

Also-rans. Each and every one.

So what the hell does Microsoft think they could possibly come up with to topple it? Bundling it with Vista operability? Oh yeah, cuz everyone loves their proprietary systems. And the chance to go out and buy a new PC with Vista.

Oh wait. Vista's delayed.

Again.

Microsoft. Pfeh. There's an old joke that was featured in, of all things, a Batman graphic novel called the "Killing Joke", that fits this whole scenario:

Two inmates escaped from an insane asylum. When they are trying to work out how to get over the wall, one inmate says "I'll turn on this flashlight, and you can walk along the light beam to get over the wall." The second inmate replies, "I'm not falling for that; you'll turn the flashlight off when I'm halfway across."

Good luck getting over that wall, Bill.