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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."
While playing songs you got from other Zune users may be time limited, my guess is that if this is a typical Microsoft product, the goatse image you picked up from simply walking down the street will be nearly impossible to get rid of (both from your brain and your new Zune).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
So I guess Apple will again be out of business by the end of the year. I bet they get tired of packing and unpacking.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I think the article is somewhat too nice towards the Zune, eg they do not mention the problem that even your own unprotected recordings will be forced into a DRM wrapper, preventing them to be shared after three days. That might even make it a breach of license agreement for creative commons licensed music, because they demand that if you give a track to someone else, that person has to be able to pass it on, impossible with the Zune.
But more interesting the five points why Apple should be scared:
1. Microsoft is hatching a consumer media "perfect storm."
The argument is that Microsoft will leverage any installed base they have (Windows, Xbox, Soapbox) and due to a similarity with the Windows Media Center user interface and Vista will have a strategic advantage. Also their 90% share in operating systems vs 5% for Apple [I think it's even less than that] 2. The Zune is social and viral.
The article claims that the world has changed since the introduction of the iPod, obligatory citing anything with the Web 2.0 label as social and viral and therefore claiming a demand by todays youth to be able to share immediately anything, making Zune's WiFi hip and the iPod old fashioned.
I guess that is the only real argument here, but nothing new. Microsoft failed to leverage their installed base before, eg with Smartphones, where they failed miserably even though the syncing with Outlook is so important. And the 5% of Apples market share does not seem to be a problem, the majority of iPod buyers already use it with windows
Maybe, but I doubt it. Let's remember that P2P was big long before the iPod and iTMS, they introduced a business model that got accepted by people that were used to get everything for free due to it's ease of use. Due to Zune's DRM restrictions there will be no widespread sharing on school yards, so even if the world would demand to return to the early Napster days, the Zune will not allow this.
3. Zune may have more programming.
The pick on Apple launching with videos only from Disney as a sign that Microsoft has more support from the movie industry. But as was discussed earlier today on slashdot, this may be simply due to Walmart and soon be a problem of the past. Even worse, if Apple made a deal with Walmart, they might try to push the Zune out.
Concerning other media formats like music and TV shows, as far as I understand basically everybody is currently trying to make deals with Apple as fast as possible to take their share of the cake.
4. Zune's screen is better for movies.
No doubt, that is true, and it will play into Microsoft's hands. There have been a lot of other media players already featuring larger screens, so this alone does not seem to be a reason for customers to switch. But more important might be all the signs indicating that Apple already has a full screen video iPod in the pipeline (their patents for the virtual scroll wheel), so this advantage for Microsoft might soon be gone.
5. Zune is actually pretty cool.
This boils down to taste, and from what I've read in a lot of forums (with a lot of not Apple friendly users), the design, color, DRM are not as cool as computerworld claims. We shall see.
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Mike Elgan is a technology writer and former editor of Windows Magazine.
Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace.
Well, that doesn't fill me with the "I must go out and get one right now" feeling so much as a "Run screaming with vengance into the night to fomemt up counter-revolutionary terror" feeling.
It could just be me, though.
The Zune screen is 320x240, the same as the iPod. It's just slightly larger (larger pixels) and rotated differently. Any belief you can play widescreen content on it is seriously misguided. Andy
1) Zune will not play back PlaysForSure media.
Rather than build on the 20%+ marketshare of consumers that have PlaysForSure-compatible devices, Microsoft has decided to claw their way back up from a zero percent market share by refusing to implement their own standards.
It boggles the mind. Even if they insist on introducing their own Super-Zune DRM for this device, what reason, technical or commercial, could they possibly have for not playing back PlaysForSure media as well?
There is going to be a great deal of consumer confusion and backlash when people find out that the Microsoft-DRM music they have purchased won't play back on their Microsoft Zune device. Especially after Microsoft spent all this time assuring people that they can just buy PlaysForSure, and not have to worry about confusing codec-DRM issues.
Yes, and TFA fail to mention the most important aspect of this "scaring Apple" scenario:
People must actually want these features in order to ante up for the Zune "experience".
IMHO, people don't want this kind of superintegrated media/software/myspace connection. Look at how well AMP'D mobile and the similar "lifestyle" phones are doing - they measure success in the hundreds of customers. ESPN Mobile just went down the toilet for good.
If Microsoft's past performance has been any indication, this attempt at lifestyle superintegration will be a mess - a security and synchronization headache that even for the few interested in such an experience, will quickly become more trouble than it's worth.
Apple wins because the iPod does a few things very well, looking the best while it does it. Zune, in attempting to be all things to all people, misses the point; there are actually very few people who want anything to do everything.
you are neglecting that many users may use one installation of Vista. For example, on account of a rather freewheeling philosophy toward downloading warez, my roommate's WinXP box now has at least 26 different users, most of whom appear to live in Ukraine.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Anyone notice how MANY times the writer references MySpace?
He is trying to RELATE zune to MySpace which has become a tremendous hit among teens and youths. By repeating the references throughout the article, he is making that invisible connection in the reader's subconscious mind.
This is DEFINITELY a PR piece written by Microsoft PR group.
I guess this is one of the first salvo, before they launch the product.
There will be more like it... and we will be inundated with these opinions from these so-called tech gurus....
After reading a dozen such reviews, the teens will think that zune probably is good.
Jester