Gates: iPod's Success Won't Last

Bill Gates told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in a interview published on Thursday that he believes Apple's time on top of the digital music industry is limited. "I don't think the success of the iPod can continue in the long term, however good Apple may be," Gates told the paper.

Gates compared the iPod to the Macintosh, which saw huge gains in the 1980s, but quickly faded away as Microsoft's Windows operating system became the choice of most consumers.

"I think you can draw parallels here with the computer -- here, too, Apple was once extremely strong with its Macintosh and graphic user interface, like with the iPod today, and then lost its position," Gates said.

Microsoft-based devices have had a hard time competing with Apple's iPod line. By all accounts, Apple still controls 90 percent of the hard-drive based player market. And in March, the iPod Shuffle, its Flash-based product, garnered a 58 percent share of the market after being out for only two months.

Gates believes that music-enabled mobile phones are the next big thing in the industry. Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia have released audio capable models, with Nokia forging an agreement with Microsoft to use Windows Media on some of its phones.

However, Apple is not sitting on the sidelines in this new market; Motorola is expected to unveil an iTunes-enabled phone in July, according to sources.