MICROSOFT SET TO UNVEIL NEW DIGITAL MOVIE PLAYER
By STEPHEN LYNCH
January 7, 2004 -- Microsoft will try to leapfrog archrival Apple today when it introduces the latest in media players - an iPod for movies.
The Portable Media Center, which Bill Gates will unveil at a keynote address tonight at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is a handheld device with a small LCD television screen.
Expected in the second half of this year, the PMC will play shows or films that have been downloaded in a digital format.
"Think of it as the evolution of the MP3 player," said Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group. "What happens is you buy a movie online and watch it on a plane or train."
The PMC is one of a number of media players premiering at this year's CES. Following Apple's enormous success with the iPod music players, HP and Sony, among others, are expected to introduce new portable devices.
Microsoft's PMC should be one of the more ambitious. Downloading movies is still a long process, but Microsoft is gambling - as Apple did with digital music - that this will change soon, Baker said. "Maybe you'll burn a show from TiVo," he said. "Or transfer DVDs to a hard drive."
An early version of the PMC was on display at last year's CES. Microsoft won't release details of the revamped PMC (except to say it will be "sleeker"), but industry followers say it should include a rectangular screen that's about 5 inches by 4 inches and a 20-gigabyte hard drive. That would hold about three full-length movies under current digital formats.
There are similar devices on the market now, from RCA and Archos, selling at between $400 and $900. But Microsoft's would be preloaded with Windows software, allowing the PMC to double as a note-taking device and an organizer, Baker said.
Microsoft and its hardware allies will have a hard time catching up to Apple in the digital-music market, Baker said. The competition got tougher yesterday, when Apple unveiled a multicolored, lower-cost $250 "mini iPod" at the MacWorld trade show.
But a multimedia device such as the PMC could let Microsoft catch up, Baker said. "There is a first-mover advantage," Baker said. "Apple had it with iPod. The opportunity for Microsoft is pretty big."
