Is Microsoft Freaking Out About An iPod Infestation?

from the maybe,-maybe-not... dept

Wired News is claiming that top Microsoft execs are simply flipping out that thousands of Microsoft employees are buying iPods instead of Windows Media-based portable music players. Of course, not everyone believes the story, noting that it's based on one anonymous source, some back of the envelope calculations and a variety of assumptions that may not be true. It is likely, of course, that Microsoft would prefer its employees to get Windows Media based music players, but it's not clear that anyone is really going crazy over this. If anything, it sounds sort of similar to a story from a few weeks ago about how Microsoft employees tend to use Google. It makes sense. They're using a product that's better for what they want it to do. However, as with search, don't expect Microsoft to always suck, and expect Microsoft execs to be motivated by the challenge to make their products move up to the level of more popular competitors. That's always been the way that Microsoft does business.