Microsoft eyed iPod in 2003
p2pnet.net News:- Bill and the Boyz, “displeased with hardware partners Creative Technology Ltd. and Dell Inc., which made players using Microsoft’s Windows Media software,” were once seriously thinking about trying to plug into Apple, says Bloomberg News.
According to an email exchange between Windows chief Jim Allchin and media software executive Amir Majidimehr, which surfaced during in a civil antitrust trial against Microsoft in Des Moines, Allchin headed the email, “sucking on media players”.
He also suggested, “he talk to Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs to get the iPod to work with Microsoft’s media software for fear the iPod would ‘drive people away from Windows Media Player’,” says the story, stating”
” ‘My goodness it’s terrible,’ Allchin wrote about one of Creative’s devices. ‘What I don’t understand is though is I was told the new Creative Labs device would be comparable to Apple. That is so not the case.’ Majidimehr replied, ‘Now you feel our pain.’ He said Microsoft was providing cash incentives to get the partners to improve devices. If that doesn’t work ‘it is time for us to roll up our sleeves and do our own hardware,’ he wrote.”
Microsoft is defending itself in the private antitrust class Comes v Microsoft Corp, CL 82311, action in Iowa that began in December.
“In the trial, a statewide class of consumers claim Microsoft used its monopoly position in computer operating systems and software applications to overcharge for its software, including Windows, Word and Excel,” says Bloomberg, adding, “The consumers claim $329 million in damages since 1994. That amount may be tripled under Iowa law.”
Also See:
Bloomberg News – Microsoft Considered IPod Rival, Apple Partnership, January 19, 2007
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