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HP iPods - Ok. WMA - No Way! |
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 HP selling a re-branded Apple iPod? Apple working with HP to allow iPods to play WMA files? Reading the headlines the past few days is enough to give a Mac fan a heart attack! ("I'm coming to ya Elizabeth!"). I've finally just recovered enough to relax and write about the matter.
And after calming down and looking at things with a cooler head, it makes great business sense for Apple to make a custom iPod (or "HP Digital Music Player") for HP to sell. Emblazoning an HP logo on it seems like a sin, but ah well, we'll deal.
As for WMA, that seems fair and logical too: about the only knock on the iPod is that it's "not compatible" with Music Services other than the iTunes Music Store. Somehow it just wouldn't seem right, but the more formats that iPod can read, the better, right?
Well it looks like we don't have to worry about the WMA thing. See, the whole idea started with one Paul Thurrott, a big Microsoft backer, who said that HP "will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft's superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year". Note that he didn't state that this was his opinion, leading everyone to infer that he has some type of inside knowledge of this fact. Anyhow, what he said was picked up by lots of news sites and spread around, getting everyone into a tizzy.
Well apparently today HP heard about this, and according to The Mac Observer, the company has quickly responded with a resounding, "hell no, we're not gonna touch that!". Ok, they didn't say that, but as The Mac Observer kindly points out, HP did offer this:
"We are not going to be supporting WMA at this time," said Muffi Ghadiali, product marketing manager for HP's digital entertainment products group. "The Apple iPod and Apple's iTunes Music Store is the most popular product and service on the planet. We considered all the existing formats, and decided it was important to support one format and not all of them so that there was no customer confusion."
Phew, and just in time, too. Our heads were about to a splode from all this cross breeding! You thought Uruk-hai were bad, but an HP-branded iPod that plays WMA files? That would not be very good for human life at all. Cuz ya know...we'd be dead.
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January 13 2004, 5:00 PM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| iKen |
1/13/04, 5:33 PM EDT |
I still dont know what to think about this whole hp branded ipod thing... seems dirty to me. But that may be because I am hip deep in broken hp computers.
As for the microsoft comments, the thing that gets me, is how hypocritical the whole statement is. A company that has been sued countless times for forcing people to use their products complaining about a music player using a superior format to theirs! HA!
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| rlhamon |
1/13/04, 6:02 PM EDT |
I like the idea that Apple is makeing the iPods for other company's now. I remember people saying they don't want the iPod becaus it just works on Apple computer running on windows (I know I gave the same look as you just did) and that it wouldn't run on there system.
Well as I see it Apple is still making a profit and the more company's buy the iPod and put there name on it the bigger iPod and Apple Music Store will become.
Also you never know Apple could start building computers and allowing other company's to put there name on it.... ok I need to stop drinking my cousins moon shine!@
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| goodlittleibookboy |
1/13/04, 7:48 PM EDT |
I don't like it. I feel like *any* windows using company's name on an iPod desecrates it. Yes it means more sales for Apple, but I think of it like putting a Ferrari engine in a Hyundai. It's still a Ferrari engine, but that doesn't mean a whole lot when it's in a hyundai.
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| sweetjimmyhugs |
1/13/04, 8:50 PM EDT |
The phrase "Beauty is only skin deep" will have new meaning after this. People are just going to cover the ugly mourge-blue with a cool skin from iSkin.com anyway.
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| Jonathan |
1/13/04, 10:06 PM EDT |
Actually the ferrari engine would do alot for the hyundai as they are very small and compact, can you say speedy? But nevermind that what gets me is Thurrott said WMA is a superior format .. Suuure it is buddy. So I'm guessing something made by Dolby is crap? This guy never ceases to amaze me.
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| okcalla |
1/13/04, 10:24 PM EDT |
i think we've missed the big picture here i mean comon they're selling side by side with an HP! My GOD are they that desperate? HP's are known for being really crappy pc's. the last thing apple needs is hp's credibilty placed on them. now granted they could have gone with gateway (god forbid) yea they'd get there product out there and known but i just dont think that HP makes for the best partnership and the and that depressing nasty blue just plain sux!
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| iken |
1/13/04, 10:36 PM EDT |
Hey, at least it isn't emachines! :)
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| stickman67 |
1/14/04, 1:41 AM EDT |
goodlittleibookboy, I think you missed something. It's like putting a coat of icky blue paint on a Ferrari. Looks like sh*t but flies like the wind! LOL
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| HTML Samurai |
1/14/04, 8:17 AM EDT |
And that's all it is.... a paint job, and someone else selling them and getting a cut of the profits. I think it is a great thing. It is going to Apple's products out there. And any money Apple makes is more money to create something new (and hopefully at a lower price).
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| moneybutt |
1/14/04, 12:22 PM EDT |
Your missing the the bigger picture. The HP iPod deal is just the cherry on top of the ice cream. Re-reading the HP news a paradox is found "who came to whom".
It looks like Apple and HP have been talking for some time. I think HP has some technology from Digital that Apple would like to use.
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| flyermoney |
1/14/04, 1:39 PM EDT |
In the flurry of gadgets and peripherals that HP launched recently, around 210 new products with incredibly uninspiring names (XY-1234 plus and whatnot...) because they wanted "to make the digital world easier for the users...", go figure.
This last step, introducing the "HPod" is a different kettle of fish. In the long term, with all these industry standards preinstalled in gazillions of PCs (AAC and MPEG4 through the compulsory installation of QuickTime) I surmise this bold move is mainly a strategic one in favor of open standards over any other proprietary format (Real, Windows Media, ATRAC etc).
Quite frankly, I don't really care about HP, Apple or RIAA's financial bottomlines or marketshare agendas, I just want an open future. As for the "hPod", I rather fancy the "Roswell Cadaver" color scheme, and being the rebel Mac Head that I am, buying the hPod (which I'll do to send a positive signal to the market) will be as rebel as a Mac user can be!
Granted, the weirdness of HP's iPod annoncement had a definite Bizzaro World vibe, but it all kinda makes sense now.
Fer chrissakes, simmer down with the moonlight hues of the hPod, pull out your plastic money and jack up the sales of the blue iPod mini right now, it's third behind Silver (understandably number one) and pink.. PINK!... quite popular with the ladies, the mini is!
Peace,
Robert.
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| fotomat |
1/14/04, 4:07 PM EDT |
How is Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format superior?
(* The term "suprised and delighted" is a registered trademark of Apple Retail.)
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| speedyrev |
1/14/04, 6:26 PM EDT |
OK, HP users will get hooked on Apple Technology!
AND I Love the link to "a Splode."
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