Gates: The Cell Phone is Mightier Than the iPod May 13, 2005
Reuters reports that Bill Gates, the chairman and founder of Microsoft, thinks that cell phones will eventually over take MP3 players and iPods as the leading digital music player. In a recent interview Reuters reports that Gates said:
"As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run," he said in an interview published in Thursday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface -- like the iPod today -- and then lost its position," Gates said.
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"If you were to ask me which mobile device will take top place for listening to music, I'd bet on the mobile phone for sure," Gates told the newspaper.
iPod has everyone gunning for it now after it surprised everyone and took over the digital music industry with its iPod device and iTunes player. Yahoo recently announced the launch of a cheap digital music service. Top Tech News reports on the details:
Yahoo gave no indication how long it would keep its initial pricing of its Music Unlimited service, which is 6.99 dollars a month or 4.99 dollars for those who buy a one-year subscription.
Additionally, Yahoo will be offering consumers permanent downloads at 79 to 99 cents a song, cutting into the turf of Apple's iTunes service, but also others including RealNetworks and Napster.
Even if the iPod is threatened by cheaper offerings and competing players Apple still has the option to expand the iPod into video, games and communications. The iPod brand will be difficult to beat.
