Gates sez: "Yeah, we're early on the video thing."
By Peter Rojas 
posted Sep 6th 2004 8:25AM
posted Sep 6th 2004 8:25AM
Microsoft gets a lot of crap for always being late to the game with everything and just throwing a ton of money around until they can dominate a market, but in an interview with BusinessWeek Bill Gates says that when it comes to those newly introduce Portable Media Centers, that this time, "We're early on the video thing" and that Apple's lead in music is "no big deal." (And that's just what we cribbed from the headline!).
Is being early what they want? This could be a big flop, which is why Apple's staying away from this market for a while. I personally don't think there's even a need for a portable media device; I've already got a laptop that's slightly bigger and does lots more...including play videos of whatever. Pretty nice looking device, though.
I think with the success of cell phones and the habits of annoying people who play with them just because they're bored out of their freaking minds, this should be a sure fire hit, if the prices stay good. People spend their 1hr commute to NYC, from the 'burbs, having meaningless conversations, playing corny games and all while using their phones. I even sit through people playing every ringtone in their phones because they're so bored. So to say that this isn't needed because you have a laptop is silly because if you're standing on line for a Bus for 1hr, to take a 1hr trip, how handy is your laptop going to be? If you want to get away from work, for lunchtime break, you're going to take your laptop with you? People were trying to rack their brains finding this solution on a PDA with 1gb storage cards (which used to cost $500 themselves if you don't recall), so why wouldn't they want a PMP? PMPs make sense!