HP's Missed Opportunities In Portable MP3 Players
from the whoops dept
Someone over at the Register finds it amusing that HP had to go out and make a deal with Apple to repackage the iPod, since Compaq (who has since been bought by HP) pretty much invented portable, large-scale music players with their Personal Jukebox - a handheld music player with a 30 gig hard drive - in 1999. The article wonders if HP owns patents on the technology, and whether or not those played into Apple's decision to license them the iPod. Chances are that's not the case at all, and this is simply a situation where HP/Compaq simply missed a market, even though some of their own researchers clearly had a headstart.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
