Microsoft admits iPod helping Apple win
“The halo effect enabled them to go after PC users and sell them Apple products,” said Will Poole,, the Microsoft executive in charge of desktop operating system products.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
Helping Apple win???
Win what? A point in market share? A reprieve from Microsoft having to bail them out with another investment?
The iPod is a wonderful product (I own 2), but…I’m trying to figure out what exactly they are winning? Music?? I realize that iTunes recently reached 500M downloads (which included the Pepsi campaign). Now if MSFT wanted to take even significant portion of its $37B in cash and give away songs for free to users (while paying rights holders)- how quickly would Apple lose market share?
Would that be smart for MSFT? Not sure… Music is a commodity business where they are competing on cost (everyone has roughly the same 1 million songs). Once the smart phones become mass market, it’ll be interesting to see how MSFT reacts.