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Ballmer: iPod will hear from us
Microsoft CEO tells Fortune that software giant will announce a device that combines mobile communications with a music player in the next year.
"We want to be in that game."
So said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today in an interview with Fortune magazine, speaking about the portable digital music devices and saying that Microsoft is indeed working on an iPod killer.
Ballmer said his Seattle-based software giant is working on a device that combines facets of cell phones and PDAs with content-playback capability. Speculation has surrounded the company's portable music plans in recent months, particularly in the weeks before it announced the "Project Origami" Ultra-Mobile PCs.
"In five years are people really going to carry two devices?" he told the magazine. "One device that is their communication device, one device that is music? There's going to be a lot of opportunities to get back in that game. We want to be in that game. Expect to see announcements from us in that area in the next 12 months."
Apple has long been rumored to be working on an iPhone of its own, but has only built its iTunes store into two phones from Motorola to date. The company is facing growing competition from the likes of Creative, SanDisk, and Samsung, which has both an iPod Nano rival and an 8GB music phone on the way. Apple is also dealing with a legislative challenge to its proprietary DRM in France.
Ballmer dropped another nugget in the interview, telling the magazine that his children are well aware about their father's feelings about Apple and Google.
When asked if he had an iPod, Ballmer said, "No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children--in many dimensions they're as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I've got my kids brainwashed: You don't use Google, and you don't use an iPod."
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