Apple's Photo Finish

Target iPod

The New York Times reminded readers just how sure of itself Apple is these days, despite competitors who are trying to nip at the company's digital music player market share. "Although there are a growing number of competitors in the digital music business, Mr. Jobs seemed confident that Apple can continue to dominate the market. The company sold two million iPods during the most recent quarter," the Times said.

Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal is the latest to weigh in with a piece on some other devices that are out to compete with Apple's wildly popular iPod and the cheaper, smaller $249 iPod Mini. Mossberg compared the Mini to Dell's $199 Pocket DJ and the $249 Rio Carbon and Creative Zen Micro: "Now, multiple competitors, having failed to dent sales of the main iPod, are taking aim at the Mini. In fact, some manufacturers believe the majority of the market for portable hard-disk based music players will shift during the next few years to lower-capacity, mini-size players. The theory is that most people don't need to carry more than 1,000 songs or so, and will flock to lower-price, smaller devices. Some speculate that the higher-capacity iPods, and similar full-size players, will be left to hard-core music lovers. So the new battle over the Mini is a big deal."

More from Mossberg: "Compared with the Mini, all three of these players offer 25% more storage capacity -- five gigabytes vs. four gigabytes, or about 1,200 songs at standard recording quality, vs. the 1,000 Apple claims for the Mini. Each player also claims to have a longer battery life than the Mini, which runs up to only eight hours -- the Rio Carbon boasts up to 20 hours. And, unlike the iPod, all work with the numerous online music stores that sell songs in Microsoft's copy-protected file format (none work with the songs Apple sells online). ... In our judgment, the three players are closer in style to competing with Apple's Mini than competitors have been in the past. But all three still lag behind badly in simplicity and ease of use -- so badly, in fact, that we can't recommend them over the Apple)." You can hear cheers from Apple headquarters on this declaration.
• The Wall Street Journal: Three Challengers Take On the Mini (Subscription required)

The San Francisco Chronicle, it its coverage of Apple's news conference yesterday, noted that "Apple claims a 92 percent share of the digital audio jukebox market. Rivals such as Milpitas' Creative Technologies are trying to slice Apple's share with new products like the $250 Zen Micro, which comes in 10 colors, to counter Apple's similarly priced, five-color iPod Mini players. Software giant Microsoft last month began pushing a new generation of players. The devices, called Portable Media Centers, which are made by various manufacturers, can store music, photos and recorded movies and television shows. But Jobs said he does not believe mainstream consumers are ready to watch movies on such portable video devices."
• The San Francisco Chronicle: What You're Looking For

Meanwhile, XM Satellite Radio may be treading into iPod territory too. The company has paired up with Delphi to sell a handheld satellite radio receiver called the Delphi XM MyFi. "Along with giving its subscribers the convenience of a traditional transistor radio, the MyFi also offers a five-hour recording capacity to let listeners download favorite programs and songs," The Washington Post reported today. "The MyFi is the latest entry in the highly competitive battle over digital music, a fight that pits XM against its immediate competitor, Sirius Satellite Radio, but more broadly against on-line music sources like Napster, and the makers of small, highly portable MP3 and other devices." Will we see an XM iPod soon?
• The Washington Post: Delphi, XM Unveil Handheld Satellite Radio Receiver (Registration required)

Who's Apple's Deepthroat?

Tech rumor site Think Secret posted news of the iPod photo on its site Oct. 8, a move that surely gave Apple's PR department some heart palpitations. A lot of the details were right on the money. Just compare Think Secret's description with the official iPod Photo specs: "The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack Toshiba's new 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499. The new iPod is currently in production in Asia after delays from Toshiba in delivering its new 60GB drive hampered a planned early-September ramp up. Sources confirm Toshiba started shipping the drive to Apple in mid-September and iPod manufacturer Inventec began building the new device in the last two weeks. ... The 2-inch color screen is identical in size to other iPods, but will sport a higher resolution for photo viewing. However, the new device's real shining feature will be its video-out port, which will enable users to tote their photo galleries with them, ready to be plugged into any television for big-screen viewing."

Another Ballmer-gram

The open-source Linux operating system must be really bugging Microsoft these days. Company CEO Steve Ballmer, "in an e-mail to customers today, is stepping up the company's rhetorical attack on the Linux operating system. In a 2,600-word memo to Microsoft's customers and business partners, Mr. Ballmer outlined several areas, including cost, security and legal factors, where he says Microsoft's Windows provides major advantages over Linux and other alternatives," the Wall Street Journal reported. The e-mail "is the latest example of Microsoft's determination to blunt the progress of Linux, which is refined by a community of programmers and backed by computer makers and software companies that include International Business Machines Corp., Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc. Mr. Ballmer's e-mail suggests that businesses using Linux face greater risks than those that use Windows. He challenges the belief that such open-source programs -- which allow users and vendors to modify the underlying computer instructions -- yield more secure software."
• The Wall Street Journal: Microsoft Steps Up Linux Attack (Subscription required)

ZDNet Australia ran a commentary today about Ballmer's recent remarks about Linux at a Gartner IT technology conference, where he took a few more shots at Linux. Ballmer "claimed that Windows has fewer vulnerabilities than Linux and that Microsoft produces security fixes faster than the Linux community. Despite his claims about Microsoft's superior record of security remediation versus Linux, Ballmer admitted that customers need more reassurance. 'What people really want to know is, do you meet the bar -- are you providing what we need on the security front. The answer for most customers is that they want us to do more,' Ballmer said. He did acknowledge that as Linux become more popular, hackers will find it a more attractive target," the piece said.
• ZDNET Australia: Ballmer Fails To Sway The Skeptics

More Tea Leaves on Tech's Revival

The latest venture capital figures may not point to a tech recovery, but other signs do. There's a revival of tech spending, USA Today reports. "For the first time since the tech bust, businesses are starting to spend on technology projects that won't immediately save them money. U.S. corporate tech spending jumped in September, researcher Gartner said Tuesday. That will help drive a 7% increase in worldwide spending this year to a projected $1.33 trillion, Gartner says. 'Businesses have been reluctant to spend against the (weak) recovery,' says Gartner computer analyst Martin Reynolds. 'Now they're starting to invest.'" The newspaper added: "During the downturn, most companies sprang only for tech projects that could quickly cut costs, including automating tasks. Now, they are considering long-term benefits."
• USA Today: Companies Spring For Tech Projects

The tech spending news, however, comes a day after the New York Times wrote about more measured, slower growth in the tech sector overall. "The profit report cards last week looked good both for old-line stalwarts of technology like I.B.M., Microsoft and SAP and for newcomers like eBay, Amazon.com and Google. But this is a technology recovery of seemingly diminished expectations," the Times said.