Ex-Apple man heads Dell music drive

Posted on 19 Aug 2008 at 09:31

A former Apple executive is heading Dell’s latest effort to make a mark in the music market.

Tim Bucher left Apple in 2004 after having a hand in the development of the iPod and the Mac mini. He claimed in a subsequent lawsuit that he was fired by chief executive Steve Jobs because people thought he was “sometimes manic-depressive”. That lawsuit was settled out-of-court and Bucher went on to found Zing and develop software to seamlessly integrate PCs, portable devices and music stores and other services.

Dell bought Zing last year and now Bucher leads a team of 120 people aiming to break Apple’s dominance of digital music market. But unlike others that have tried — and failed — notably Microsoft, Dell is not aiming to go head to head with Apple. Instead it told BusinessWeek that it plans to create a broad alliance of device makers, record labels and music stores.

“Customers want access to content from a broad variety of sources — how, when, and where they choose,” said chief executive Michael Dell.

That may have been applicable while DRM was in its ascendancy, but now iPod users can get music from a wide variety of sources. Dell’s task is to make its offering easier to use and more compelling than the iPod-iTunes axis. It won’t be easy, though Zing does have some early adopters -Sirius Stiletto satellite radios and Sansa Connect music player.

Dell will start by introducing two portable players early next year, BusinessWeek says, with more to follow, while the Zing software will make its debut on low-cost laptops due to be unveiled next month and will be installed on all Dell PCs by the end of the year.

Author: Simon Aughton

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