"As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run," Gates told the
Zeitung, according to
Reuters. "You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface -- like the iPod today -- and then lost its position."
The
release of Windows Mobile 5, with built-in support for Media Player 10, signals Microsoft's bid to transform the smartphone into a multimedia entertainment device to compete with the iPod and its MP3 format. While the iPod still has roughly two thirds of the global market for MP3 players, according to
Reuters, it is already facing competition from smartphones like the
Samsung SGH-i300, which incoporates MP3 functionality and a 3 GB hard drive for storing music.
Reuters notes that the 50-year old Gates also commented on his future with Microsoft.
Read the full
Reuters story here:
Gates sees mobile phones overtaking iPods -- paper
Related stories:
