13 Jan 2006
Music stops for Mac Windows Media Player

It's getting closer ... a real challenge to the Microsoft's virtual monopoly on the desktop. And Microsoft knows it: they may be the Evil Empire™, but they're anything but stupid. They're hunkering down and securing the hatches.

All Jobs has to do is to flip a few bits in the new, Intel-based OS X so that it'll run on commodity boxes and M$ goes down in flames. Really. It's that much better a system.

Of course, unless the price is right, and the quantities materialize in time, that kind of move could put a serious dent in Apple's profits, most of which are based on hardware. But as more of those profits come from devices like the iPod (Microsoft's XBox division must be green with envy), the temptation will be there.

That would be jumping into the arena with the undisputed heavyweight champion and dropping the gauntlet. Apple has always fundamentally thought of itself as a hardware house: this would be a dramatic move away from that internal self-conception. The question is: does Steve have the cojones to do it? It's the stuff TV movies are made of, a real life Revenge of the Geeks.

Microsoft halts development of its Windows Media Player for the Mac, CNET News.com has learned.

(link) [CNET News.com]

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