D3. billg Gets Snippy about MP3 Players

Billg says he’ll “play nice” with the large telephone carriers in order to displace Apple from the market for downloadable music players. Walt counters, “Most people don’t think of Microsoft and ‘nice’ in the same breath.” Billg gets quite angry and says, “Well, let’s look at Apple’s hardware strategy. They had a hardware strategy and it bankrupted their Original Equipment Manufacturers. Our entire success is due to our partnerships with Dell and others.”