CEA rolls with Zune?
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The Consumer Electronics Association unveiled a proposed standard today for connecting portable media players to home and car entertainment systems. I’m probably reading way too much into it, but this strikes me as an attempt by Apple’s rivals to undermine the iPod’s dominance in the field.
Today, the incredible popularity of the iPod has led car makers and aftermarket car stereo manufacturers to build iPod compatibility into many of their products. Similarly, boom boxes and home stereos are sprouting iPod docks. That works great for Apple and its customers, not so great for its competitors. The best thing that most non-iPods can hope for is a USB port, which can take a digital feed (and provide power) or an AUX jack, which can take the analog output from the device’s headphone port.
The new standard is powered in part by a technology developed by Microsoft called the Media Transport Protocol, which would be used to send streams of audio and video from the portable player to the receiving device. Microsoft’s Zune speaks MTP, as do some rivals’ MP3 players, but the iPod does not. A good discussion of MTP can be found here, in a note from Dave McLauchlan -- a Microsoft exec who worked on the Consumer Electronics Association’s standardization effort. That standard also specifies the kind of plug that would be used to make the connection. I haven’t read the specs (and wouldn’t understand them if I did), but the summary posted by CEA makes it clear that the set-up wouldn’t be compatible with today’s iPods. Of course, Apple could always abandon its proprietary connector in favor of the new standard, but why would it? The installed base of devices using Apple’s connector is huge, which reflects the fact that more than 100 million iPods have been sold.
The lack of an industry-wide standard for connecting digital portables to entertainment gear in the car and home has been a speed bump for consumer electronics manufacturers. The accessory silos built by Apple and its competitors are confusing to consumers, and as a result they spend less. It’s similar to the problems caused by the incompatible copy-protection schemes used by Apple, Microsoft, Sony and RealNetworks. So it’s understandable why the Consumer Electronics Association would try to solve the problem, at least as far as connectivity goes. But if Apple’s not on board, it’s not much of a standard, is it?
The upper photo of an iPod Nano is from Apple, while the lower photo of a Zune is from Microsoft.