Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble has written a open letter to Bill Gates on the subject of media players. Published on his blog, Scoble outlines a lengthily list of goals for the company to do in 2005; the ultimate aim being to have a brand new, iPod beating media player in 5 months time.
"Hi Bill. I"ve been thinking about how to make Windows Media cool. You know, cooler than wearing white headphone cords.
Open source the product development.
Yeah, you"re gonna be hearing a lot about "open source this" and "open source that" in 2005. Open source has become a metaphor for things done in public view with public input. Actually, you"re a leader here. Check out Channel 9. It"s the first step along the road to open source marketing. But back to the point.
We have five months to come out with a great new set of music players and get a great marketing campaign going. Why is that? It"s called back to school. If we don"t get something going by June then we lose another generation to the iPod. Do you want to let that happen?" (continued here)
Perhaps Robert has missed the excellent line of Portable Media Centres (one of which we reviewed recently) which are already doing battle with the iPod. However, asides from his rather loose use of the term "Open Source", he does make some healthy suggestions. The idea of getting bloggers (i.e. consumers) to input on the design is a good one and could generate something quite new and unique. However, I don"t think Apple needs to worry just yet. One wonders just how realistic a proposal like this could be and whether it could really be done in such a short space of time; interestingly, Scoble notes that development on the MSN Toolbar Suite has only been six months (or did it?), so perhaps it is possible. Who knows what 2005 will hold?!