Microsoft’s Secret Plan To Defeat iPod, iTMS, OS X.

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Many industry observers, aware of the plan, said this strategy is to be expected. In the past two years the company has seen declining revenue growth, declining profit growth, market share drops in key competitive areas, and competition not only from Linux and Open Source, but especially from long time nemesis, Apple Computer.

Windows’ “Longhorn” (the next revolution in the Windows saga) is years behind schedule and features are being slashed dramatically simply to get a new, more secure version of Windows into the hands of users before XP runs out of steam.

Part Two of Bill Gate’s plan to take back market share and computer “mindshare” carries the most remarkable and ambitious initiatives ever undertaken by the Redmond, WA software maker.

According to the leaked memo of directives to CEO Ballmer and the executive team, Gates made some startling requests with unusual candor and clarity for an executive long accused of spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Gates made the following multi-step requests of the executive team.

Also, Longhorn will include a new communications platform; an application that will permit live audio connections (like a telephone) between Windows-based computers.

The major component of the application, code-named “ClickChat” will be a video and audio codec which will allow multiple video connections simultaneously between Windows computers.

Paying tribute to the Apple-inspired “digital hub” Gates has personally requested that Microsoft launch Longhorn with a new code-name which will be more user friendly and avoid the stigma already present in the marketplace; “Tigger2.”

Tigger2 will utilize components of “QuckMedia” in a newly revamped Microsoft Music Store and portable music player. The Music Store will feature over 2-million songs and the entire collection of Beatles music will be available for free download for the first six months to every registered QuickMedia user.

To ensure a rapid increase of market share, Microsoft will team with a number of portable music player manufacturers to provide a proprietary music player which will play every format currently available, regardless of platform or digital rights management scheme.

The Microsoft player is code-named “PlayMe” and will retail for $99 for 20 gigabytes of storage, and $159 for 40-gigabytes of storage. The Gates’ memo notes that actual costs to manufacture such a device exceed the retail cost, however, Microsoft will subsidize the manufacturing cost in order to expand the company’s market share.

All these features of Tigger2, and the portable music player, which will be called “iPop”, are scheduled to be released, according to the memo, “in the first half of 2005.” iPop will not be Mac compatible. It will play music from RealNetworks’ music store, only backwards.

As a further incentive to Windows users who purchased iPods and downloaded music from Apple’s popular iTunes Music Store, Gates has requested that a “rebate” be provided to customers of equal value to expenditures made to purchase an iPod and downloaded music from iTMS.

To demonstrate Microsoft’s new focus on customer requirements, all purchases of Tigger2 will be capable of running on PCs with 128 megs of RAM, and a 20 gigabyte hard disk. A new version of Microsoft Office will be released at the same time as Tigger2 with the new marketing name of Microsoft Office: Millenium Edition, in honor of the new century, and the company’s renewed, customer-centric focus.

Gates has long been a proponent of tablet PCs and “media” computers which can record and playback video. Designating the year 2005 as “The Year of Windows Media,” Gates will launch a handheld, wireless, tablet video communications device in the “second half of 2005.” The device will be backwards compatible with current wireless networks and provide full video and audio communications in a hardware package half the size of a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper and half as thick as an iPod.

The handheld device will be called “CU-SeeMe” and will feature a built-in 5 megapixel camera, wireless Internet access, microphone, color touch screen capability, speakers, video and audio in/out, USB 3.0, Windows “Tigger2 Extreme CE” operating system, and Microsoft Office: ME PU (Portable Undertaking), and retail for $299.

Full details of Gates’ plan beyond the multi-page executive summary were not available, however, it is known that Linux users will not receive the same “open arms” approach by Microsoft as Apple iPod owners. In cooperation with attorneys from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), Microsoft will individually bring a lawsuit against each Linux user for copyright and patent infringement. First notices of “cease and desist” orders are scheduled to be sent out November 24th, 2004.

Gates noted that Steve Ballmer himself had conducted an internal audit of projections of the new Gates Plan, and Microsoft expects market share to increase to 98.6-percent by the end of 2005.

Repeated calls to Apple Computer executives to comment on the Gates Plan have gone unanswered. Microsoft’s official response to queries about the existence of a “Gates Plan” was, “We do not comment on unannounced products.”

Is it time to sound off? What are your views on the Gates Plan? Share your thoughts via the Feedback link below, or the Comments link. Do you think there were too many mushrooms in my mushroom soup dinner at the diner?

Could be. Stranger things have happened, no?

Damn those mushrooms. It all seemed so real.