Memo: Allchin Weighed Windows-iPod Links

Here's an interesting nugget: Pre-Zune Microsoft thought about approaching Apple about making the iPod work with Windows.

In a 2003 memo first reported on by Bloomberg, Microsoft Windows guru Jim Allchin thought he should approach Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the matter.

The Seattle PI's Todd Bishop picked up on it here. The memo surfaced in an Iowa anti-trust case against Microsoft.

Allchin wrote the e-mail, under the header "media devices sucking," to Windows Media Player exec Amir Majidimehr.

The issue, according to Microsoft, was that hardware partners like Creative Technologies and Dell were not doing a good job creating slick devices for Windows Media Player. "I think I should talk with Jobs," Allchin wrote. "Right now I think I should open up a dialog for support of the iPOD. Unless something changes the iPOD will drive people away from WMP."

Clearly if talks were held, they didn't amount to much: the iPod and Windows remain strangers to each other and Microsoft went its own way with Zune, which debuted in November.

This is the second Allchin e-mail missive praising Apple wares to surface in the past few months. In the other, Allchin cited the elegance of Mac OSX as an example of how Longhorn design had gone awry. That memo's text surfaced earlier this month.