Peter Van Dijck’s Guide to Ease

Microsoft’s challenge to the iPod | CNET News.com: “Microsoft’s digital device would be equipped with at least one feature the iPod lacks…”

It’s not the features!

I’m not a branding expert, but, so it seems, neither is Microsoft.

You can’t beat ipod on its own turf. You can’t say: “We’re like ipod, but better”. Because everyone knows the ipod is the best.

Look at the Sony PSP. It’s is, clearly, not an ipod. But it’s a winner. And Sony could (if they would be organizationally capable) beat some serious ipod butt with it.

The only way for M$ to build an ipod killer is to, yep, not build an ipod killer. Create a new category. Build something else.

If the press writes “it’s quite unlike the ipod”, you’ll be on to something. If they write: “Microsoft’s new ipod killer has att least 1 feature the ipod doesn’t have”, you’re a lost cause.

Now Microsoft have a lot of selling muscle to sell this thing. But they won’t get it right as long as they try to be ipod.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 10:30 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.