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Microsoft’s iPod Challenger Looks Promising

Authored by Jay Baage on July 11, 2006 - 8:02am.
Microsoft Argo Player The blog ”Engadget” has published a picture from an insider, who claims that the device pictured to the right is a part of "Project Argo", one of Microsoft new high-profile digital-media products named after a warship in Greek mythology.
 
It is no secret that Microsoft is hard at work trying to come up with a consumer device as sexy as the iPod. So far no other portable music player has been as widely embraced by hip young consumers. Perhaps that will change now. According to “Engadget”, the new Microsoft device “appear to be a 4:3 aspect ratio display, and could be 3, even 3.5-inches wide”. The design is as you see nice and clean and very similar to the iPod. 
 
The Microsoft player is also rumored to be WiFi enabled, which would give it an advantage to most current portable music players (except for the Musicgremlin) as well as the iPod. A portable device equipped with WiFi allows you to download and stream music and video content without connecting to a computer.
 
Several webpostings also claim that the “Argo” media player will function as a portable games playing machine, working on the Xbox platform, hence taking on head-to-head competition with Sony's PSP. The device above does not, however, have keys that you would normally associate with a gaming device, making it unlikely to feature games as a primary function (in its first new model to come to market anyway).
 
To the mainstream audience, the main advantage of a new Microsoft device over the iPod, is that it is based on the MP3 file format and therefore supported by the most popular online music subscription services like Rhapsody and Yahoo! Music, as well as MTV’s new Urge service. The critical point is still battery time and it remains to be seen which device can deliver the best performance to that end. 
Microsoft's official comments to these reports of a new iPod rival is that they are based on "speculation and rumors". The company simply stated that it did not "have anything to announce at this time".
 
Related Links:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/10/microsofts-argo-xbox-wireless-portable-media-player
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32954
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003116550_brier10.html
tags: Sony | PSP | iPod | Apple | Xbox | Microsoft | MP3 | WiFi | Urge | MusicGremlin | Portable Music | MYV | Argo |



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