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Wal-Mart Leaks Zune Price
nieske writes, "Engadget reports that Wal-Mart accidentally published online the intended price of the Microsoft Zune; the iPod rival would apparently retail for $284. The price was quickly pulled from the Wal-Mart site. Reports say that Microsoft was flustered when Apple dropped the price for the iPod 30 GB, previously $299, to $249. BetaNews states that 'undercutting the iPod is a major goal of Microsoft's upcoming effort.' Will Microsoft respond to Apple with another price drop?"
Let's be honest here.
Ipod is synonamous with MP3 player now. Even grannies going to the shops for their grandchildren will ask for an iPod by name. We say podcast, podcasting. I can't see people Zunecasting. Unless the Zune offers something substantially better or a great and highly compelling new feature (Actually, I've just thought of one, maybe I should copyright it right now..) no-one else has thought of then it's just not going to sell. The only hope MS have is to back it up with an extremely cheap song purchase system but I can't see them doing that without oodles of DRM involved.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
And can you imagine the DRM nightmare that is going to be on that MSFT device? I have clients all the time needing help moving music they ripped on mediaplayer to a new machine. they will not play because they did not set the "dont encumber my music with drm dammit" flag in the advanced settings hidden in mediaplayer. so I haveto explain to them what DRM is and they still do not understand.
The other biggest failure of the Microsoft device will be that I dont care what service they couple with, iTunes has way more music selection on it that anything Microsoft can come up with.
I dont love the iPod, I'm a non drm kind of guy with my iRivers... but microsoft is not known for open and easy to use.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
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Are freeware writers also dumpers? Do they start being dumpers if they later start charging for their software? Mmmmm...
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
What position would that be? They hold precisely zero percent of the mp3 player market share. Unless you are implying they are going to use their marketshare in OS to bolster their product - which is a pretty specious arguement if you ask me given that iTunes/iPods work great with windows. Now, if MS starts messing with things that give iTunes/Windows integration issues -then you have a pretty solid case. Of course that raises an interesting point... how well does Apple support Play's For Sure devices on its platforms? I'd wager less well than MS supports Apple products...
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
"We know the stories about Apple (ab)using cheap labour to maintain the iPod's profitability at the moment"
Trolly troll. *sigh* I'll feed you...
Microsoft will also be (ab)using cheap labour to maintain profitability, it's how business is done. The shirt you are wearing, the computer you are typing on, etc... were all made using cheap foriegn labour. Apple voluntarily investigated the accusations, hired a third party to oversee, and has since been shown to be largely false. If Apple "abuses" anything, it's cornering the market on components
"Microsoft may be using their position to deliberately push Apple into a crisis."
Actually, it seems Apple dropping their prices has actually pushed Microsoft into a "crisis". Apple holds 75% of the digital music playing market, and it accounts for about 40% of their profits (all other coming from Mac and software sales). I'm not sure you know what you are talking about.
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
No, because Apple didn't have any online music sales before they launched the iPod. Then they did iTMS, and it worked.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has tried numerous times to sell music online, and failed each time. That's their track record. What part of that is so hard to grasp?
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
The product it is leading is Vista.
In the 1990's Microsoft spent thousands of man-hours creating a pen operating system that died on the vine. It was a pure cost to the company, no profit. But the key point is that it died AFTER the GO Penpoint operating system died. Martin Eller, one of the Microsoft staff involved, even has a quote in his book:
"This wasn't a thing about making money. This was all about 'block that kick.""
Apple makes money selling iPods, but the big play for them is the iPod halo effect to sell more Macs. Macs (and Mac software) are much more profitable than an iPod. The release of Vista, with all its associated angst, represents a big opportunity for Apple. Microsoft will fight that halo effect with everything they've got, even if they have to lost money on every single Zune. They make their money from Windows, and this is all about protecting the Microsoft market (and mind) share.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I think you are failing to take into consideration the fact that this is a whole different set of circumstances.
Netscape lost the battle over IE due to one primary reason: IE was pre-bundled with Windows.
Now, you may scoff at that, but think about it.
A person new to PCs and the internet goes to the local Wal-Mart/BestBuy or whatever, and buys a computer. They come home, get it set up (or more likely, get help from a friend/relative) and try to get to the internet. And what pops up? Various MS assistants that lead them directly to Outleak, IE, and WMP. Case closed. If that person wanted Netscape, they had to download it from somewhere, or get a copy on a CD from their ISP. And even though MOST ISPs sent a copy of Netscape to the customers in the late 90's, the damage was already done. Customers were now familiar with IE and Outleak, and had no reason to switch.
The difference today is that both Zune and iPods are a computer attachment. And the purchaser of said MP3 players won't be looking at a PC for the very first time 99% of time. Nor will it be their first time on the internet.
Apple is flat out DOMINATING the portable MP3 player market. I am sure they are working HARD to keep their trademark alive, so the iPod doesn't become the Xerox machine , or the next aspirin. Because iPods are now synonomous to the world with MP3 player.
I just don't see MS getting the Zune to that point.
Apple makes FairPlay work on on Windows.
I'm sure MS is free to make Play's For Sure work on OSX
Wait a minute, people have been posting a theory on /. for years that Apple has NEVER made money from iTMS since it opened for business.
Running with that in mind, my thought was that for Apple to continue to operate like that, they would have to keep selling iPods at a higher % above cost over and over again to make up the difference or increase the cost of songs (which may cause a negative effect on sales and profit). Well, now enter competition and Apple recently released some minor changes to existing models and lowered the price. Now they are making even less % profit then before. If the MS player does get a foothold, how will Apple maintain what they have just off of hardware alone when they are competting with others selling hardware?
My opinion here...
People claim that the slick interface and ease of use is why people by the iPod. I disagree that is the case for the the majority of people with them. How many of those people have actually even used another player to determine ease of use or slickness? How many other players were in your face with marketting that the average person knew about? How many people can even name a company or a specific model of portable music player besides the iPod series? These things lead to the assumption that the slickness was NOT the main factor and it was marketting, hype, and NOT wanting to be different (everyone has one, dont be left out) caused the huge sales coupled with the fact that portable compressed music players are new to everyone. Apple was not selling home DVD players and those sales took off in a major way when the price was right. The technology was new and it sold, not a matter of a specific company released their version and then the sales took off. It is not like Apple invented a new wheel and everyone flocked to it and gave up their existing wheels.
If Apple can not maintain the hype to keep its edge. Others will pass it by as portable players will be a cheap commodity in a short period of time just like any other piece of personal technology ever released since the first transistor was created in the lab. Of course with the articfical licensing and restrictions, it will take a little longer but it will get there. MS and Apple will both ride it as long as they can.
I do not care for the Zune or the iPod and view them both as evil because of the DRM involved and I still have a reasonable method to avoid it.