Microsoft's challenge to the iPod | CNET News.com
Microsoft's challenge to the iPod | CNET News.com: "Microsoft's digital device would be equipped with at least one feature the iPod lacks..."
It's not the features!
I'm not a branding expert, but, so it seems, neither is Microsoft.
You can't beat ipod on its own turf. You can't say: "We're like ipod, but better". Because everyone knows the ipod is the best.
Look at the Sony PSP. It's is, clearly, not an ipod. But it's a winner. And Sony could (if they would be organizationally capable) beat some serious ipod butt with it.
The only way for M$ to build an ipod killer is to, yep, not build an ipod killer. Create a new category. Build something else.
If the press writes "it's quite unlike the ipod", you'll be on to something. If they write: "Microsoft's new ipod killer has att least 1 feature the ipod doesn't have", you're a lost cause.
Now Microsoft have a lot of selling muscle to sell this thing. But they won't get it right as long as they try to be ipod.