One of the few good things we can see in lawsuits between tech companies is the disclosure of their corporate communications. Thus, in an email from Bill Gates to his team, the founder of Microsoft acknowledged that Steve Jobs took them by surprise with the iTunes store. A letter that reveals the extent to which Jobs aroused both the admiration and the surprise of his competitors.
Email revealing Gates’ surprise and reaction to the iTunes Store
He email has been shared by the Internal Tech Emails Twitter account, obtained from Comes v. Microsoft in the year 2000. We have condensed the paragraphs for easier reading:
Subject: Jobs’ Apple again… and it’s time for a great download service on Windows…
Steve Jobs’ ability to focus on a handful of important things, recruit people who know how to build great interfaces, and sell things as revolutionary is fantastic stuff. This time, he somehow applied his talents to get a better licensing deal th an anyone has gotten for music so far.
It is very strange for me. The record companies themselves offer a service that is genuinely hostile to the user and has always been analyzed in this sense. Somehow they decided to give Apple the chance to do something pretty cool.
I remember arguing with EMusic and telling us that this model was better than subscription because you know what you’re getting. With a subscription, who can promise that the new stuff you want (and the old stuff) will be there?
I’m not saying this weirdness means we screwed up. At least if we did, Real and Presspaly and Musicnet and basically everyone else failed as well. Now that Jobs has done it, we need to move quickly to have something where the UI and entitlements are this good. [como los de Apple].
I don’t know if we will have to do it through a joint venture or not. None of the problems that exist. However, I think we need a blueprint to show that even though Jobs has taken us by surprise again, we are moving fast and getting to his level and beyond.
I’m sure the team has plenty of ideas on this. If the plan is clear, we don’t need a meeting. I want to make sure we are coordinated between Windows DMD, MSN and other groups.
The birth of Apple’s trio of aces
Apple launched the iTunes Store on April 28, 2003., just a year and a half after the launch of the original iPod. It was the logical evolution after the introduction of iTunes as a music library manager in early 2001 and the iPod just ten months later. The integration of a music store was a further addition for those who wanted to listen to legal music in a comfortable and simple way, a fundamental pillar of what would later come with the iPhone, a phone that amazed us at the time. ‘era.
When it opened, the iTunes Store was the only legal digital store that covered all five major record labels of the time. In addition to a simple interface, Jobs managed to convince them to sell individual songs only 1 dollar, plus the albums. This way, they offered the user to purchase only the songs they liked without investing the usual $10-15 for a full album.
Apple offered record labels an alternative to the rampant piracy that existed at the time, betting on an initiative led by a fairly small company at the time.
Looking back, Apple’s decision is obvious. Combines hardware (iPod), software (iTunes) and services (iTunes Store) in a user-friendly way and without obstacles caused by outdated business models. In the same way that current products also use this trio of aces quite successfully.
MSN Music in response to the iTunes Store in 2004
Bill Gates email has been sent April 30 at 10:46 p.m.. That is to say two days after the launch of the iTunes Store. His team got to work on an alternative called MSN Music. The service already existed, but they added the ability to buy music online in 2004.
Despite our best efforts, the service quickly turned poor. It was born in response to the iTunes Store launched a year earlier, using the Windows Media Player program and the DRM-protected .wma format. Paradoxically, it was not compatible with the Zune player released by Microsoft in 2006, a new attempt by the firm to compete with Apple’s iPod.
Finally, in 2006, its closure was announced and has been replaced by Zune Marketplace. More advanced software designed to deliver content in the enterprise player. However, these devices didn’t fare any better either. The Zune HD was discontinued at the end of 2011, ending the most advanced model to date.
This story shows, once again, that it was not so easy to do what Apple did. Combine intuitive software, attractive hardware and easy-to-use services It seemed obvious and it was enough to copy it. And yet, one of the most powerful corporations of the moment has proven unable to make a dent in it.
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