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Zune — $249.99 On Nov. 14
Cubricon writes, "As expected, Microsoft has dropped their price on the Zune in response to Apple's recent iPod updates. Ars Technica has an article that discusses the Zune's use of Microsoft's prepaid 'points' system for songs. Will the masses notice the difference between an iPod and a Zune? Will they want the FM and wireless capabilities?" The Zune lists for $0.99 more than the comparable iPod and songs from the Zune Marketplace will cost just under $0.99.
As an Apple user, I'm all for this. A REAL competitor in the mp3 player market means that Apple has to "innovate" something cooler in order to stay on the top. I'd like to see a wide-screen iPod by the end of the year. :D
So at around the same time for $250 you can either get an also-ran music player or a brand-new game console. Zounds to me like they are going to lose a lot of tech geek sales.
If I was MS I would drop the price of this thing to $199. I mean, this thing is gonna bomb anyway, minus well lower the price and hope to make more money on the music-selling end of things.
Next MP3 player won't be one of these, I'll get something cheep, like that little jobby that works with a USB drive, which i can then plug into the new generation of car stereos with USB. Hoo Hah!
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Walmart.com already offers its songs for 88 cents (the songs play on PlayForSure devices), so someone is already undercutting iTMS's prices, but it hasn't made any difference.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
When people are asked what they want, they do not say an Mp3 player. They say, "I want an iPod." That alone puts the Zune at a large disadvantage, not to mention all the other things. iPods are trendy, well-known, and easy to see(Look at me!) - so until people start looking at what kind of Mp3 player to buy instead of what version of iPod to buy, the Zune will struggle to find its place in the market, just like everyone else.
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How about one of the manufacturers come out with a user replacable battery. This was a major complaint for the first Ipods, and hasn't been fixed yet. A bigger screen means shorter playtime between charges. That's one feature that would make me choose one over the other. Besides that, they're all comparable.
"Hey, let's offer a player two months from now at the same price as Apple is already selling the iPod at today. Also, let's make sure that our new, unproven propriatary music DRM is completely incompatible with our previous propritary music DRM! That way we get to drive away consumers fearful of unknown technology and piss off our existing music partners to boot!"
Dead on Arrival.
Crow T. Trollbot
Yes, but FM? I think AM will be more useful.
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I can't believe what a turkey the Zune is. Here are 2 reasons right off the bat:
- It only lets you share one song at a time via wi-fi and then only with another Zune player. What's more, even if the song is not DRM'd, it infects that song with DRM so that the recipient can only play the song a maximum of 3 times or for a maximum of 3 days, whichever comes first. So much for Microsoft's wonderful social networking scheme.
- It can't play songs you've already downloaded encoded with Microsoft's own Play For Sure DRM. Dumb. Just plain dumb.
And if including an FM tuner didn't get people to flock to Creative's Zen video pod, why should it be such a hot feature in the Zune? And who the frack thought brown was cool?
the fake Air Jordans from K-Mart back in the day. And when Air Jordans were out of style, K-Mart kept on trying to sell them. You can probably still buy them.
iPod haters were already saying that the market was saturated with iPods and Apple's time was over...so how is Zune going to fare any better? You can't have it both ways. Zune is simply not a compelling product...especially when the iPod is still "hip".
Whether intentional or not, I think it was BRILLIANT that Apple did not release the true video iPod at this last event. The fact that it wasn't released will have many holding off on buying a Zune. Especially with the mystery surrounding the iTV and how the forthcoming iPod will interact with it. If the Zune was really that great, they wouldn't have had to adjust the price. This clearly demonstrates Apple's influence in the marketplace...even over MS.
>I won't buy an iPod because I really want the FM radio built in. >I won't buy a Zune because of the way it looks. > >Whichever one improves first will most likely be the one I'll get. Most portable mp3 players will be obsoleted by features in cell phones. Newer phones by Motorola include MP3 players, and Nokia phones have inclued FM tuners for years. Why would I want to carry another device since I already have a cell phone and already update it every 1-2 years. FA
This is something that worries me significantly about "point based" systems; it's like they're trying to create their own currency, which they could theoretically fluctuate as they want. Except that, unlike currency, you can't convert it back to the currency you transferred it from.
Not that I'm wearing a tinfoil hat or anything, but this sounds like the precursor to Microsoft Dollars, or Wal-Mart Bucks and that really scares me.
... remove the DRM. That's it. I'd buy one in an instant.
I like the Zune, from what I've read and the pictures I've seen it seems pretty cool! Especially the wireless sharing of files - that's really cool. However, the DRM that the wireless transfers forces on your media is unacceptable.
Any takers on how long it will take to crack the DRM?
Or
Any takers on how long it will take to get Linux running - doing the same things - minus the DRM?
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I won't pay 99 for a DRM-riddled piece of music... I will pay a full dollar for a DRM-free piece of music though.
For famliles it may be unattractive.
As I understand the Zune sales model, if you buy a song it's locked to play only on your computer and your Zune is also locked to your computer.
The problem is then families that have multiple computers or multiple zunes. If both sis and bro and mom like the latest snoop-dog tune, they can't buy it once and share it o all their computer's and Zunes. They have to buy one copy per machine/zune. That's freakin' nuts.
Or did I get it wrong. Sorry if I did, since Im itunes for the long haul and don't really care about Zune.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Seriously, what's the deal with people hating FM radio? I spend my whole day at work listening to BBC Radio 1. Sure, their daytime playlist is quite limited, but they do play some new music in the evenings, but I mainly tune in for the DJs.
You're obviously not an American, and haven't listened to FM radio much in America if you've ever visited here.
Let me educate you a little. Here in America, where we talk a lot about businesses and competition and capitalism, we're actually not much different from the Soviets: all the FM radio stations in the country, except for those playing NPR (National Public Radio--like an extremely watered-down BBC), are owned by a single company: ClearChannel. This company decides what we all listen to, and plays the exact same thing on every station across the country. So they'll have a couple of country music stations, a rock station, etc., in each metro area, but it's playing the same crap that every other station of that format is playing, whether you're in Florida or California or North Dakota. Even worse, each station only plays about 10 songs, in a continuous loop; the only time you'll hear something new is when ClearChannel is working with the RIAA to brainwash us into buying some new album, and they have to update their loop with the one song they'll ever play on that album. Lastly, while a lot of your media is controlled by the BBC, it seems to actually care about producing quality media, or at least trying to. BBC News is world-renowned for being one of the best news outlets (you'll never find that reputation among any American news sources). Here, there's no such pursuit of quality at all. You can forget about any good DJs on the radio, since the DJs don't decide which songs to play anyway (that's decided by the upper management).
As for Sirius and XM, I'm surprised ClearChannel hasn't lobbied our politicians to make that stuff illegal.
I have one of these, of course the 512MB version is now the same price, which wasn't the case when I bought mine a year or so ago.
Still, it does the job, just with more limited storage. It even has an FM tuner that works pretty well.
I just don't understand the need to have several gigs of music copied to yet another device. I keep my music on my harddrive, and on semi-permanant backup CDs (soon to be DVDs), as I do most of my music enjoying from my computer. To me it seems pointless to have a complete copy of that to another device.
The convienence of not having to go to my computer every once in a while to change my music is not worth $200+ to me, sorry. I just don't see the need to always have access to all of my music 100% of the time. If the music gets old while I'm away from my computer, I just turn it off, and *gasp* think my own thoughts and reflect on myself. I really think that music has become a bit too pervasive in many peoples' lives in today's society. I mean, if noone has any time to hear themselves think over the sound of constant music, then how will people ever reflect on themselves and grow emotionally?
But, then again, everyone else has an iPod or some such, so I guess they must have good reason for shelling out such money. I can't think of any that would make me pay so much though...
Maybe I've missed something though. Thoughts?
If you live in an area that gets hit hard repeatedly, why don't you stockpile things that you will need when the next inevitable disaster strikes?
I avoid FM radio like the plague most of the time, but it's not quite as bad as you're painting it.
ClearChannel is the biggest player in the radio market, and now that there are no FCC impediments, they usually own multiple channels in a given market. They arguably wield monopoly power in some markets, but they don't even control half the market.
Personally I think the FCC screwed the pooch when it decided to do away with limitations on media ownership. That ship has long since sailed, though. Clear Channel wouldn't have achieved its dominance under the old FCC rules. At the same time I wouldn't be surprised if they started losing marketshare once competitors start to figure out how to provide listeners something better (which really shouldn't be difficult, given the crap Clear Channel churns out). Dominance doesn't equal monopoly.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
The better question is what do we care and why would you ask? Did anyone say that you should buy a Zune just for FM reception?
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
It's brilliant!
Most people will see 79 points being A LOT than 99 cents eventhough the difference is only 1/4 cent.
Never underestimate how retarded the average Joe is.
You're really better off just getting whatever mp3 player/whatever you like and buying a separate am/fm tuner. Not only do you get the best of either world instead of some kind of stupid compromise between the both (power requirements for the tuner are actually significantly greater than the player for instance) but you get the possibility of recording the radio for later listening, a feature which I haven't seen on ANY mp3/minidisk/tape player/radios in quite some time.
You can get quite small radio tuners quite cheaply now.
Now.. whatever happened to the "battery-free" models powered by the recieved signal? Surely by now we can build pretty good recievers like that.
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