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| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, July 08 2013 @ 06:14 PM EDT |
http://groklawstatic.ibiblio.org/pdf/iowa/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/8000/PX08636.pdf
<p>
<b>From:</b> Jim Allchin<br />
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 13, 2003 10:03 AM<br />
<b>To:</b> Amir Majidimehr<br />
<b>Cc:</b> Will Poole; Michele Freed; Pieter Knock; Harish Naidu;
Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Linda
Averett<br />
<b>Subject:</b> RE: sucking on media players
</p>
<p>
I think I should talk with Jobs. Right now, I think I should open up a dialog
for support of the
iPOD. Unless something changes, the iPOD will drive people away from WMP.
</p>
<p>
jim
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<b>From:</b> Amir Majidimehr<br />
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 13, 2003 10:01 AM<br />
<b>To:</b> Jim Allchin<br />
<b>Cc:</b> Will Poole; Michele Freed; Pieter Knock; Harish Naidu;
Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Linda
Averett<br />
<b>Subject:</b> RE: sucking on media players
</p>
<p>
Now you feel our pain :) We have been unsuccessful in the past to convince
these vendors to
open their eyes and accept that there is better software out there than what
they ship with these
things. Of course, some are better than others but none are a match for Apple.
For good or bad,
the message is finally getting through 9with retailers threatening to sell iPod)
but we are not
waiting for that. Tomorrow, we have an entire crew descending on Creative and
after that,
Samsung and Rio to get them motivated to build the "right" device. We
are putting incentives on
the table in the form of cash, technical support, direct interface to
developers, early access code
for 9.1, etc. In other words, we are going all out and hoping that at least a
few will listen. If none
do, then it is time for us to roll up our sleeves and do our own hardware :(.
</p>
<p>
We are also pushing them on ID. Interestingly enough, some have devices that
are pretty much
clones of iPod in all respects but worry about challenges from Apple. Still, we
are giving them
motivation to try harder.
</p>
<p>
As you allude to below, we also have work to do on our end to make
synchronization better. But
to do that, we need to have devices that support our new MTP protocol so we
don't quite have
anything to give you just yet. Our target is to unveil the synchronization
capabilities at CES in
early January. So we may be able to give you a sneak peak sometime in December.
We would
love to have your feedback during that process.
</p>
<p>
BTW, while the Dell is not substantially better from usability side, it is at
least prettier then the Zen.
</p>
<p>
Finally, while not a substitute, we hope that Portable Media Center will be a
well executed device
with support for metadata which is very useful given its color screen (there are
some complicated
rights issues that we have to sort out first). Some of the UI design elements
appear to be even
better than iPod (as far as cascading menus is concerned).
</p>
<p>
Amir
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<b>From:</b> Jim Allchin<br />
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 13, 2003 9:34 AM<br />
<b>To:</b> Amir Majidimehr<br />
<b>Cc:</b> Will Poole; Michele Freed; Pieter Knock; Harish Naidu;
Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Linda
Averett<br />
<b>Subject:</b> sucking on media players
</p>
<p>
I bought the high end creative labs portable player. It was the NOMAD Jukebox
Zen Xtra.
</p>
<p>
I have to tell you my experience with our software and this device is really
terrible. I expect you
already knew this but I had not personally experienced it. Now I spent the time
last night really
playing with it. My goodness it is terrible. What I dont understand though is
that I was told that
the new Creative Labs device would be comparable to Apple. That is so not the
case.
</p>
<ol>
<li>The physical device is not even in the same league as the iPOD. I
mean it is ugly, not
smooth to the touch (hard edges and uncomfortable to hold, etc.), fragile (easy
to break),
the controls are difficult and they hurt your finger if you use the
"jog" dial much at all, etc.</li>
<li>A reboot is required.</li>
<li>Two unsigned drivers are loaded. I have NO idea what these are needed
for.</li>
<li>They ship their own music jukebox software and organizer. The
installation encourages
you to use theirs over WMP.</li>
<li>Setting up a relationship to copy all the music from WMP is very
un-intuitive. Copying
the contents of a playlist isn't too bad, but doing everything is very
strange.</li>
<li>The actual Playlists themselves are not copied over to the device. So
you just lose that
capability on transfer.</li>
<li>There is no synchronization as you know. You copy it across and the
next time, you
have to copy it ALL across again.</li>
<li>One of the worse problems I had is that it appears NONE of the meta
data that you put in
the WMP library is carried over. In other words, the copy ONLY uses the
information in
the file itself. So, if you have Wave files and you copy them, then you lose
all the meta
data (e.g., artist, album). This also appeared to be true for files that DID
have meta-
data fields in the files. It's like WMP doesn't force updates of these fields
back into the
files themselves. So all the entering of information in WMP library is lost if
you move the
file to another machine. I hope that is not the way it works, but it sure seems
like this is
the case.</li>
</ol>
<p>
I am REALLY counting on wm9.1 to fix this terrible experience. Apple is just so
far
ahead. How can we get the IHVs to create something that is competitive with the
iPOD? I
looked at the DELL system and that is not close either.
</p>
<p>
I would like to try to use any alpha software you have.
</p>
<p>
jim
</p>
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