Microsoft: it costs $30,000 to fill an iPod

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 12 May 2009 at 09:31

Microsoft has taken aim at the iPod, as its assault on Apple's pricing continues.

A new 30-second television advert features Wes Moss, a certified financial planner, explaining that iTunes "costs a lot" while Zune Pass "costs a little."

"People worry about the capacity of their iPod, but what about the capacity of their bank account," he proclaims. "At a buck a song, they'll run out of money way before they run out of space. It costs $30,000 to fill the latest iPod using iTunes. I don't know about you, but I don't have thirty grand lying around for music."

Happily Moss has a solution, which is to use a subscription service such as Microsoft's Zune pass which offers people in the US unlimited music downloads, with the ability to keep 10 songs every month in MP3 format, for $14.99.

In short, that means to keep a permanent copy of the Microsoft music costs $1.49 per track - about 50% more expensive than Apple's downloads.

It seems unlikely the ad will do much to break Apple's stranglehold on the digital music market, especially given the somewhat dubious financial message being touted.

However, it does suggest the software giant's recent series of Laptop Hunter ads - in which real life people are given $1,000 to find the best laptop they can and invariably choose Windows - have hit the mark, and that it's finally found a stick it's comfortable hitting Apple with.