# Bill Gates on the iPod



## andreww (Nov 20, 2002)

http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/12/tec...phones.reut/index.htm?section=cnn_mostpopular


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## Elias26 (Apr 19, 2005)

So when will the day come when Bill Gates becomes supreme ruler of the world Bill, formerly known as Earth?


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

This sums it up:

""The consumer is always unpredictable. In principle, you can only throw products onto the market and then learn from your mistakes"     

However is is RIGHT on two counts:

- Blackberry is dead
- Apple was seriously wrong not to team up with Nokia (that Northern California view of the world again)

Trust me on this ®
We shall see ©

(copyright holders will recognise themselves  )


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Mr. Gates if forgetting that a lot of people don't want these 2 integrated. Why should I be interrupted during listening to music to take a call? Windows Mobile? Wow.. mobile virus box  You'll be lucky if you can even listen to music on it once people start writing viruses for it. I think they are going to be convenient for people who don't mind the inconvenience of the two integrated. But, the iPod will still be around for a long time. I mean.. there are still more users using CD Players than Mp3 players right? Some people just don't like transition.

Imagine, being on the phone, and some piece of spyware is listening in on your call and so are others, now telemarketing companies will be able to obtain your cell number too.


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## Elias26 (Apr 19, 2005)

Apple had a chance to team up with Nokia and didn't?! Gah! What were they thinking! Nokia is huge, and would open up more door ways for Apple! 

The idea of a iPod quality MP3 player with cellular phone functions would be cool. 

P.S. Am I the only Apple user on here who has no intentions at all of ever owning a iPod?


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## andreww (Nov 20, 2002)

Why would it be cool? I think there are many directions I would like to see the ipod go before it becomes a phone, like VIDEO! 

ipod = LISTEN
phone = TALK

why would you want to combine two gadgets that are on the opposite end of the spectrum?


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## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

i actually think gates is right for once. when the ipod was first introduced, one of the first things i thought was how hard would it be to incorporate this technology into a cell phone? most the pieces are already there.

my prediction (based on nothing, really) is that apple will eventually lose its dominance of the digital music market through inaction.


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## Clockwork (Feb 24, 2002)

I agree that the iPod wont last forever. On that note I also don't think that Windows will last forever either. Perhaps even Apple may one day be in the museum along with PC's as we know them. One day someone will make another OS I would imagine. To think that with all the technology we have that others won't try would be ignorant. Perhaps his statement regarding iPods also pertains to Windows and he knows it. Or maybe he is far too grandiose to think that his own companies demise is not right around the corner. Everything turns to dust and rust in the end.


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## Jmain (Apr 30, 2005)

I don't understand this obsession with extra features on Cell Phones.

I do not want a Camera/Video, MP3 Player, Internet Browser, PDA etc on my Phone.

I want a phone who's battery lasts more then a day. I want a phone that has good sound Quality. I want a phone that has good signal strength.

I don't want to pay 500.00 + Bucks for a phone that will last a year.

All I see is the same old crappy ass phone quality with tones of extra features that cost a fortune to use. There is no advancement of the actual phone.

It is getting very hard to find just a phone Cell phone these days.


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## Rob Dekker (Apr 6, 2005)

Bingo...me too. Just a basic phone with some quality and not costing a fortune. I go through cell phones like Kleenex...they get dropped, frozen, melted, drowned (only once in a pool), etc, etc...I don't need all the gimmicky teenie-bopper stuff added.


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## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

I for one would love the integration of the iPod and a phone. Think of it like this: You're listening to music on your iPhone with your Bluetooth headphones with mic. A call comes in, the music pauses, Speech reads the name of the person calling, and/or the phone number. A press on the button on the headphones or simply saying "Answer" takes the call. 

Sounds good to me.


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## MacDaddy (Jul 16, 2001)

Moscool said:


> Blackberry is dead


The BlackBerry is far from dead. My friend is a manager of a Wireless Wave, and he was telling me just last week that BlackBerry's were outselling phones at his store by almost 3-1. Maybe its just his store.


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## yatko (Oct 9, 2004)

Actually Mr.Gates might have a point.

How many gadgets one can carry with him/herself and if you were to eliminate the most important one which one would you choose?

Hmm let me think, a cell phone/PIM with wireless internet/e-mail and even perhaps TV capability or Ipod?

I hope Apple is listening.


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## yatko (Oct 9, 2004)

Jmain said:


> I don't understand this obsession with extra features on Cell Phones.
> 
> I do not want a Camera/Video, MP3 Player, Internet Browser, PDA etc on my Phone.
> 
> ...



You are talking about the phones in NA. And give or take 2 years all those your complaints will be gone since the design of the phones are being refined.


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## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

The Great Waka said:


> I for one would love the integration of the iPod and a phone. Think of it like this: You're listening to music on your iPhone with your Bluetooth headphones with mic. A call comes in, the music pauses, Speech reads the name of the person calling, and/or the phone number. A press on the button on the headphones or simply saying "Answer" takes the call.
> 
> Sounds good to me.


ditto. i've missed many calls because i'm listening to music and when i'm walking i can never feel the phone vibrate, and i certainly can't hear it ringing. if they could actually make it small enough, but still have a large capacity i'd consider buying one.


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## itaca (May 12, 2005)

I this just too much in a single device, and moreover there will be issues in syncing diffrent devices with all kind of different music services.
I have a SE P910i that does almost everything but when it comes to music there's only my Ipod.


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## Thusenth (Mar 3, 2005)

Sooner or later they have to integrate something... wheni t comes to portable gadgets my list includes my cellphone, a PSP, an iPaq PDA, an iPod.. that's 4 things.. and I don't like having things in my pocket lol... oh and my Powerbook.

I find myself leaving things at home to save space and then being somewhere and wishing I had it with me. It's times like this I wish i was a girl and had a purse to carry everything.


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

The mobile phome industry is already killing the low end of the camera market and you don't thing it can kill the portable music market?!!!


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

Funny how once upon a time, not all that long ago in fact, having three devices that each did one thing to a high standard was to be preferred over having one device that did three things to a mediocre standard. (Audio gear being the classic example: the more obsessed you were, the more likely you had a different amp for every channel, and these amps would in turn have yet another component, a pre-amp, for a user interface, and so on. I'm sure some people still swear by such setups. On the low end, you had the cassette-turntable-amp-preamp-radio combo.)

Now it's different, because digital tech has raised the objective quality of mediocrity more than enough that most of us can't tell the diff between "good enough" and "great." 

Just the same, I suspect there are still enough people out there who in three years will want a terabyte iPod to play lossless-encoded tunes on high-end headphones and speakers, and another gadget altogether to perform the function of telephone. Perhaps they'll accept cameras in their phones, because that's at least a fulfillment of the old Jetsons (etc.) promise of video phones, whereas playing music on your phone is simply a space-saver, the digital-age equivalent of adding a corkscrew to a typewriter.

In short: music and phones will surely go together, but I'm not so sure that means certain death for standalone music players.


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## steveohan (Jun 25, 2004)

you guys need to come to asia. here in korea, mp3 cellphones are all the rage...and yes, many people want their music and their cell in one device...in asia at least.

i for one would love to be able to carry just one device for my phone/music/camera.

steve.


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## TheBat (Feb 11, 2005)

There probably isn't a device of any kind on the planet that has retained it dominant position forever. There will always be some new device / technology that just stands head and shoulders above the rest, but it's never there forever.

So Mr Gates is right, the iPod will not be the dominant player forever. However if the iPod adapts (meaning it may become a "different" device) to what the public wants (or thinks it wants), it can remain on top for quite a while yet.

But who knows what the public wants..... they (ie the public) certainly don't know!!!


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## Thusenth (Mar 3, 2005)

I think they're forcing this integration idea on us, it'sh ard to find a quality phone with bluetooth without a camera.


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## TheBat (Feb 11, 2005)

Thusenth said:


> I think they're forcing this integration idea on us


Too true. I just want a cell phone in my cell phone. And a dammed good one at that, please.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## Brian Scully (Jan 23, 2001)

*Nope*



Elias26 said:


> Apple had a chance to team up with Nokia and didn't?! Gah! What were they thinking! Nokia is huge, and would open up more door ways for Apple!
> 
> The idea of a iPod quality MP3 player with cellular phone functions would be cool.
> 
> P.S. Am I the only Apple user on here who has no intentions at all of ever owning a iPod?


Nothing in my future either but then again I have only purchased one song fro ITMS ( just to see how it worked).
I am just not a music person. If something happened to my vision I would probably use one for audio books


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

I have two pockets: one for my wallet and one for my gadgets. I have been striving for years to reduce gadgets to one. At the moment I'm cheating: I have a smartphone with 1 Meg camera that has replaced my PDA but I carry a shuffle around my neck


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

Moscool, that just goes to show how heavily segmented these markets are -- and how there's room for a wide range of devices, both multifunctional and specialized. 

I have a pocket for keys + phone, and one for my wallet. My iPod, when I carry it, goes in a coat pocket or a side pocket if I'm wearing the right kinds of pants, or I may yet get a case w/ belt clip for it. (Wallet in back pocket = back pain for me, so I just never put anything there.) I want my phone to be something cheap and serviceable that I can use and abuse, not something that I have to treat with great care.

If a phone can handle shuffle-level mobile music needs, great. That's something that might interest me. But I don't want anything more than that, so there's no phone that can possibly replace my iPod, which I use for data backup as well as music, and which I often dock to my stereo system where I enjoy the convenience of easily accessing my large collection of music files. 

On the whole, I don't really <i>like</i> carrying gadgets around. I take the phone when I go out during business hours, but otherwise it tends to sit around unused. I appreciate the iPod for its portability, but I appreciate it just as much for its overall usefulness, portable or not.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

The Great Waka said:


> I for one would love the integration of the iPod and a phone. Think of it like this: You're listening to music on your iPhone with your Bluetooth headphones with mic. A call comes in, the music pauses, Speech reads the name of the person calling, and/or the phone number. A press on the button on the headphones or simply saying "Answer" takes the call.
> 
> Sounds good to me.


The Great Waka, I think you're looking for a wireless version of one of these. I had no idea they even existed until we received them at work earlier this week.

The iPod trend will eventually die out, no one is denying that. However I do agree with most of the people here that the current designs that are integrating all the different gadgets into one just aren't that great. They aren't designed to do one thing well, but instead many things acceptably. I don't want something just acceptable. The reason I chose to get an iPod was because it did music exceptionally well.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

HowEver said:


> The bluetooth version of the headphones linked above would be great. Most bluetooth headsets, currently, will pause your music and automatically answer the call, or not, as programmed. And with voicecommands, you never need to handle the phone to answer a call, or switch to music, etc.


Wow, those are awesome. Yes, idealy I would like BT version, but those may be on a purchase in the near future....Know where they are available in Canada?


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

TGW - There is actually only one place in Canada you can get them at the moment, and the chain only covers Western Canada (London Drugs - I guess there goes the anonymity of where I slave as a electronics sales guy.) They may have it available for purchase on their ugly web site on Tuesday when they officially launch with the next flyer.

EDIT: Spelling mistake. NOTE: These are wired (The Skullcandy Link). I've yet to see a pair of bluetooth headphones.


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## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

Chealion,

Thanks, I'll check out their website again next week then. Currently they are sold out of the model I want (Motorola with just the jack for my own headphones).


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