Microsoft Hopes New Leadership Will Boost Music Division

WSJ: Microsoft's Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer is looking to 43-year-old Senior Vice President Robbie Bach to revamp Microsoft's digital-music strategy. The Journal reports that Bach, who is a 16-year Microsoft veteran that heads Microsoft's Xbox videogame unit, will take on the additional role in music in addition to overseeing strategy for some other consumer markets...While the Xbox has admittedly been a money loser, it's also considered a popular success with a widely recognized name brand and is the closest thing Microsoft has to an iPod...

Mr. Ballmer, speaking about the digital music strategy in a recent interview, conceded, "I do think that we should have pushed - could have pushed - harder on our device integration sooner." He added, "We won't make that mistake again."

Microsoft sees cellphones as an important way to answer the iPod and tackle the digital music market and its latest mobile-phone software, Windows Mobile 5.0, contains support for adding into cellphones the same kinds of hard drives that are used in the iPod and other mobile music players...(Subscription required)