Re:Microsoft Losing Against iPod, iPhone, iOS, iMessage, Sla...
by rchaud on Monday April 15, 2019 @04:14PM
(#19668501)
That's why I mentioned the other manufacturers. In the MP3 player market, Sandisk and Creative were #2 and #3 behind Apple and had been in the game much longer than Microsoft.
Unlike today, where we have multiple Surface-branded products, back then Microsoft only had Xbox, which operated as an entirely separate division from Windows + Office.
Before the Zune, MS tried to be the software partner for non-iPod devices, with the Windows Media Player store and Plays4Sure DRM standard (which they botched). It's only after it all failed that they rushed into the market with the Zune, which was a partially redesigned rebrand of a Toshiba MP3 player that was in the works.
Unlike today, where we have multiple Surface-branded products, back then Microsoft only had Xbox, which operated as an entirely separate division from Windows + Office.
Before the Zune, MS tried to be the software partner for non-iPod devices, with the Windows Media Player store and Plays4Sure DRM standard (which they botched). It's only after it all failed that they rushed into the market with the Zune, which was a partially redesigned rebrand of a Toshiba MP3 player that was in the works.