Yaser Anwar_

Microsoft's iPod Killer Emerges -- Should Apple be Scared? You Bet! (AAPL, MSFT)

"Microsoft has a pattern of entering a business and sucking the profit opportunity out of it by incorporating it as part of its platform. Why should entertainment infrastructure be any different?"

The only thing MSFT has ever entered successfully & "sucked" out profit from is Operating Systems & Office. Otherwise the company is a deadbeat. Their efforts have been fruitless in 1) Internet Search 2) Video Gaming (Sony sales still kill the xbox!) & the third one will be MP3 players.

MSFT can add all the goodies it wants, from WiFi to big screens, in the end they will either price it to high, thus killing demand or price low enough to take a loss on each sale (think Xbox!). I can gurantee you that the player will not have the smoothness of the iPod or the ease of use.

Microsoft's iPod Killer Emerges -- Should Apple be Scared? You Bet! (AAPL, MSFT)

Andrew, with regards to your opinion about Apple not having a subscription being a disadvantage, i don't think so. The reason being, once they roll out a subscription type of service one of their competitors could then lower the price even more to compete with them. Like Yahoo had a service of 69$ annually or so for music, i don't think it worked too well. Look at Napster, its stock is as dead as its service.

On a personal level, i think a subscription service would limit the consumers freedom to switch services. I'd rather pay 99c for a song then pay 10-12$ monthly or so & be forced to get songs just "cause i paid for it."

Right now Apple stock, according to me, is being mispriced. It sells as if there was no Intel deal nor a platform of allowing windows on Mac. Those two catalysts would help turn its 4% pc market share to 6% in the coming years.

As for MSFT's so called "iPod killer." The media can go on about it but i don't think it will be an iPod killer, more like MSFT killer. By the time they realize its not penetrating market share (just like SNDK or iRiver MP3 platers) & that they have burned the cash to no avail.