Microsoft’s PlayForSure (R) – Blessings by Branding?

Microsoft recently announced their PlayforSure (R) initiative designed to ensure compatibility between third party mp3 devices and Microsoft’s Media Player product – a native Windows (R) accessory. The branding works by displaying the PlayforSure logos on hardware and software packaging and is designed – probably a similar concept to Intel’s Inside (R) – to build consider confidence in devices that have proven to interoperate well with Windows. The logos:

Microsoft’s interest in this area is interesting because instead of directly competing against the genius of Apple’s interoperability between iMac, iPod, and iTunes (Apple controls well over 65% of online music distribution through iTunes), Microsoft is attempting to reinforce consumer confidence in Windows and build a significant partner base that supports Windows solutions; over 50 OEM’s and seven online services now display the brand.

Microsoft’s Blessing by Branding strategy will seek to build greater confidence in Windows as an interoperable platform for exchanging music and video between partners. The initiative will build strength in a coallition of products and services that will erode Apple’s marketshare in multiple arenas (hardware, software, Internet services) through offering greater consumer choice. It’s interesting that Microsoft isn’t announcing a Windows-based alternative to iTunes – maybe that’ll come later – but instead seems focused on offering an anti-iPod strategy that slowly transitions consumer preference to variable platforms and service providers….

Now, doesn’t this sound like history-revisited? IBM and Microsoft license their technology to competitors to clone the PC and thus obtain more marketshare from an Apple who was strategically convinced to become a monolithic licensor of their technology? Microsoft appears to have learned well from the past… Apple? It’s not like they’ve anything to worry about _today_ – but are they becoming a white, ivory tower in a plain surrounded by ogres displaying the PlayforSure(R) logo on their shields?

Russell Mickler, CISSP MCSE
www.micklerandassociates.com
(c) 2005. All Rights Reserved.

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