For years, people have been hunting around for the “iPod killer” and it seems strange to me that we have been on the search for about 4 years now and turned up nothing. Well, the reason? The technology hasn’t changed at all, so there’s no innovation, meaning no reason to change. The subscription based services (Yahoo, Napster, etc…) are good enough to draw the die-hard music fans who want a wide-variety to listen to without paying $1,000 for songs, and we now have video capable iPods. But really, that is all that’s changed in 4 years for a device that is typically looked at as the cutting edge of personal electronics.

So let’s take a look at what is will take to displace the iPod. Let’s get the basics out of the way… it has to play MP3s and has to play video, duh. It has to be small enough to be portable and comfortable carrying around. It needs a comfortable, familiar, and easy to use interface (the current draw of the iPod). It needs to have Blackberry like email/communication capabilities. It needs easy access to purchasing a variety media (like iTunes). But most importantly, it needs some “must-have” feature that has a strong enough draw which apple cannot duplicate in the near-future. It will also have to come from a company with a large bankroll and a marketing machine behind it to be able to sell it to the average consumer.

Well, to me, all that points to one device. This device hasn’t been made yet, we’re pretty close to having all the features it needs hardware-wise, but everything is already there software-wise. Who makes it? Microsoft.

Huh? Microsoft isn’t really into the personal electronics biz? They are in it much more than you think. They build operating systems, and every electronics device needs an OS. Hardware is the easy, the cheap part, software is what really makes a device.

Here’s why the Windows Mobile platform will provide someone with the ability to knock off the iPod. First off, it has a very familiar interface as 99% of the electronics consumers are familiar with, Windows. I’ve been on Windows Mobile for two years with my Dell Axim PDA, and the interface is comfortable to use, probably because it is just so familiar. The PDAs and cell phones running Windows Mobile already have the ability to play a wide variety of media files, music and movies.

So we have the software portion already covered, so let’s take a look at some of the other features it is going to need. We’ve always heard about someone trying to make the ultimate portable electronics device that does everything under the sun. So what does the average iPod user have in his/her pockets/purse at this point? An iPod, a cell-phone, and a digital camera. Attempts have been made to integrate those, but the iTunes cell phone was a flop because of limited features, difficulty to use (compared to the iPod), and limited storage capability. Most of us have cameras in our cell-phones, but at this point most are low-quality still-picture cameras without a flash, and we have to pay insane fees to upload and share content on a mass scale. Not sure that an iTunes capable camera would spark much interest, so I won’t even bother integrating those two. What about an integration of all 3? Won’t happen anytime soon as they would have the inherent flaws of the dual combos.

So time to get back on track. How is someone going to build something that has the features of those 3 devices, plus that all-important “New way to experience media” that I mentioned above? We’ve got to have to go completely outside-of-the-box and not add features to existing devices one by one, but just throw everything under the sun, into one device, and make it so “cool” and especially easy to use, that people can’t live without it. Here is my feature list for a dream device…

  • Good quality camera (at least 3-4 MP), with video and a flash. That’s what most people’s digicams are nowadays, and the average digicam is about the size (maybe a little larger) than your average cell-phone. So it won’t be adding size to someone’s pocket that kills the deal.

  • ALWAYS-ON HIGH SPEED internet access. I capitalize those first two because they are extremely important and are both required. The cell phone networks are the only ones capable of providing that at this point, so they must come into play at some point in this equation. I emphasized high speed because another key to this equation is streaming video at an acceptable quality. To me that means at least 250kpbs and 20 frames / second. To decode that, it will require a decent processor for decoding (~300 mhz), something the cell phones don’t even touch at this point. So we aren’t looking at your traditional cell phone that may exist right now.

  • Access to one, and preferably multiple sources for purchasing audio and video. iPods have shown that users are willing to accept one source for media, but to me, Apple is lucky. Look at the cell phone companies, especially Sprint, who is going nowhere with the Sprint Music Store. To me, Yahoo comes into the picture at this point as they’ve always strived to be a media company. They probably stream more audio and video from their servers at this point than anyone else. They already have the Yahoo Music Engine and store to purchase music from, and I don’t envision adding video to that as too difficult. Plus, if this is to be Windows Mobile based, Microsoft and Yahoo have been best buddies for years, so that is a logical partnership.

So here’s the all-important new way to experience media… instant access to any audio and video (podcasts, bands, radio, TV shows, IPTV, etc…) in high quality, at an acceptable cost, anywhere your cell phone has coverage. TiVo has given us the ability to experience TV without time constraints, how about this mythical device giving you access to every form of media without geography constraints.

So let’s sum it up and describe what we’re looking at… A windows mobile based device that has windows media player, also a good quality video camera and the capability to store a good amount of pictures and video, so it has a hard drive. This device also doubles as your cell-phone, providing you access to the internet and ability to upload your captured media to a variety of services like YouTube, Flickr, etc… Because it is Windows Mobile based, it has easy access to Microsoft Exchange servers for the business consumers and it will need to “push” your emails from your gmail, hotmail, yahoo accounts for the non-business users. People don’t want to have to rely on checking their email, that’s why Blackberries have been so successful.

The iPod will be replaced someday, just who will do it is the question? Now Apple being the “Microsoft PC” killer with the ability of OSX to run on Intel chips now, that’s a post for another time.