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Why Microsoft's Zune Scares Apple to the Core
BoredStiff writes "Computerworld has an article examining Microsoft's plans to launch a competitor to the Apple iPod, the wireless media player called Zune. The article lists five reasons why Apple may fear the Zune, and why it won't be as easily smacked down as the dozens of mp3 players before it have been. The Zune isn't just a music player, the article argues. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace. With the Zune, Microsoft is trying to launch a consumer media 'perfect storm.'" From the article: "Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista. Apple fans are overconfident in the iPod because Apple once commanded 92% of music player market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70%. About 30 million people own iPods. But Microsoft owns more than 90% of the worldwide operating systems market (compared with Apple's roughly 5%), representing some 300 million people. The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years."
What will ZUNE do that the Pocket PC / Windows Mobile platform cannot do? There are Windows Mobile devices out now for little more than $200 with built-in wifi. They ALL have QVGA screen or better, except for a few 240x240 square screens on some phones. Some are cheaper than the Zune!
Why would Microsoft all but stop its interest in the pocket computing field that is totally capable of everything Zune can do, then build an entirely new device on a new platform? The only thing todays Pocket PC's don't have that Zune does have is the new software and a large harddrive. How hard could it be for M$ to add some software and bigger harddrive support to the already wonderful existing line of Pocket PC's? Plus, Pocket PC's can even have VGA Screens!
Forget the Zune and it's "consumer media 'perfect storm'". Microsoft is recreating the wheel again just to try to squash competition. With it's interest on market share instead of true market need, this product will not live up to their expectations. Apple isn't the best out there. But they lead the market because they simply give a product that fills most consumer needs.
Funnypics
I don't know that that's really what they want, although supposedly that's what they're shooting for. MySpace had it's 15 seconds, and IMO is heading out the door. I don't know that you'd want to take a brand new, unbranded product and slap a "It's like MySpace, only you carry it WITH YOU!" label on it.
If MS really wants to scare Apple, they need to come out with a way to make it cooler than Apple's product. MySpace ain't it.
"Why should OS mkt share matter to MP3 player mkt"
Are you sure iPod has 70% of the mp3 market? Or are most users using it to play proprietary iTunes files? With the ZUNE for sure, the main thing Microsoft is pushing it for is NOT mp3 files, but MS's own DRM formatted files.
Where were you when the voynix came?
I sold my iPod 4G over a year ago due to disuse since I work at home and don't get out much except for meetings or for nightlife, and an iPod is useless in a restaurant or a club.
Anyway, I was looking into getting a 6G in the next week or two and read up on Zune.
I had to say that even though it's a non-starter because it's PC only and wont work with iTunes or the iTunes music store, I found it very compelling.
First off, it has a big screen.
This is huge! One of my gripes and the reason why I never went in for the 5 or 6G with the photos and video stuff is because the screen is so frakkin tiny.
I mean WTF? How could Apple, the kings of quality UI think that was sufficient? I know I'm not the only one, either. Remember the fake iPod mockups we saw online claming to be the 6G iPod, half of them showed a vastly increased screen size. Apple failed to significantly alter the display, ignoring the obvious flaw.
Wireless!
I can't tell you how annoying I always found it to have to take my iPod out of it's cradle that was jacked into my Home Theatre and have the music stop just so I could add some tracks/playlists to my iPod. With Apple having Airport/Airtunes and bluetooth it just seemed logical to converge that with iPod.
Instead, Apple decided to go the cheap route and not include that sort of functionality. I mean, imagine a wifi or bt enabled iPod... sharing photos and files with other iPod users or those with BT enabled cellphones/handhelds/laptops. You'd think Apple would have seen the value in that.
So it's good to see MS coming out with a strong offering in the MP3 player market. Apple needs a good kick in the pants to wake them up from their warm after sex glow they've had since taking the market by storm.
I think everyone here at Slashdot recognizes the dangers that these new DRM-infested devices are introducing into modern culture, and I think we can all agree that we would prefer companies to stop producing products that restrict our freedom.
Imagine what would happen if a company produced a portable MP3 and video player, similar to the Zune, that had P2P WiFi-connectivity, a BitTorrent client and possibly a scaled-down version of the Democracy Player . This might just cause the RIAA and MPAA to lose the ability to monitor file sharing and make it impossible to stop (unless the RIAA hires a bunch of thugs to sit in every subway car and bus across the country).
I call on us to figure out how to produce such a device. We need to send a message to companies like Apple, Microsoft and Sony that we will not accept devices broken by DRM.
Is anyone out there interested in helping to start a project to build and open-source piece of hardware to accomplish this?
The last sentence is the key (to the Zune's loss of potential).
If songs received wireless cannot be shared, then it cannot be viral. That is a huge limitation that will bite them.
If it really were viral, it would have some tremendous potential to change the music scene. A small, unknown band that has a rabid fanbase could start sharing their songs. If people like it, they would share it with their friends, etc. A previously unknown band could suddenly be a hit (assuming the music was good enough to spread) and be on everyone's music list.
Requiring people at each level to buy the song before they can share it will severely suppress the spreading of new and interesting music.
Disregarding the premade conclusion here that Zune will mysteriously capture mind share and marketshare, if anybody's doing the price squeezing, it's Apple, whose lowered iPod prices caught Microsoft off guard. Apple has the established relationships with manufacturers and the cheaper contracts as a result, and they're not selling each iPod at a loss. Every step of the way is an uphill battle for the Zune.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Microsoft!!! The first thing that will happen is some clueless parent will buy his or her kid a Zune for Christmas to replace an overstuffed iPod, and after an hour or two of trying to get the kid's DRMed iTunes music to play on the thing, it will be "what the hell good is this?!!!" Rather like trying to install those Word for Windows floppies from work on your brand new Mac back in the early 1990s.
"Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista"
Windows Media Center?? Who uses this - no one I know or even don't know has ever said PEEP
about their cool new windows media center box! Tivo on the other hand.....
Bottom line here is that Zune will fail because M$ is not cool, I repeat, MICROSOFT IS NOT COOL.
They and their products are nerdy, stuffy, and buttoned up just like Bill Gates.
Zune is a stupid name, the product does not look, and will not look or be as cool as an iPod.
Who buys iPods, KIDS - WHY? Because they are cool. Other people have iPods, but the mass marketshare
are kids and parents buying for their kids. Wearing an iPod is cool, the iPod is just cool - whether it plays
movies, music or transfers files is not the point or the issue. It's a fashion item, not technology.
Parents who buy their kid a Zune this xmas are going to be hated when the kid comes home after being
ridiculed and asks why they didn't just get the an iPod!? The zune will be dead by next xmas.
Apple will never be scared of the tiny share of people that think M$ is cool.
To me it reads more like astroturf from a company desperately trying to generate some hype for a product which has received a "ho hum" response in the marketplace.
Have a look around the traps - all the usual media whores are touting the "social and viral" benefits of the Zune, tenuously linking it to MySpace, YouTube etc. It's being pushed heavily in the blogosphere as well.
So guys, how does it feel to be part of a marketing exercise?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
In a year or two, many players will have some form of wireless: Bluetooth, WiFi, and/or wireless USB. Apple will probably include something like it in an upcoming iPod and it will be slightly less crippled, and people will ooh and aah about how "open" Apple is. And then you'll see a huge number of cheap MP3 players with wireless that really do come without all those annoying restrictions, and those will be the good ones to get.
Nobody seems to get it. The reason why Apple hasn't done wireless in the past is because it sucks up too much battery. I know this from speaking with one of the guys in the small core iPod team: they have an ultimate constraint for any feature that uses too much juice. If it reduces hours, it won't get implemented. Period. Wait until there's more battery friendly wireless, then see what Apple does.