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Jobs Unfazed by Zune
twofish writes "In an interview
at Newsweek marking the approaching 5th anniversary of the launch of the
iPod, Apple CEO Steve Jobs seems unconcerned by Microsoft's wannabe iPod killer
Zune. Earphone sharing will prove a more potent force for social networking
than the iPod rival's wireless song-sharing feature, he reckons. 'I've seen the demonstrations on the internet about how you can find another
person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes
forever,' he says in the article. 'By the time you've gone through
all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of
your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you're connected with about two
feet of headphone cable.'"
Good comments, but Jobs does have his own bits of doublespeak. When he says that customers aren't asking for compatibility he's either defining his terms VERY carefully or he's in denial.
On the other hand he can't say "we can't adopt Microsoft's proprietary DRM instead of our own proprietary DRM because: (A) Microsoft will crush us, and (B) Microsoft's DRM is too effective for customers to put up with... the main reason we can get away with what we're doing in the iTunes Store is because everyone knows our DRM is little more than 'honor system'."
Though it would be refreshing to hear that/ He could go on with "You know, back before we introduced DRM I pointed out that DRM is basically impossible to make more than 'honor system' anyway, and our success really proves how right I was."
You could still have a song of the day to allow people to try out new music. Record stores might like something like that. Instead of listening to headphones in a store you push a button which sends the song to any zunes within range (which accept it). You get 3 chances to decide if you like it and then buy the song. But, such usage is totally at odds with Microsofts marketing.
In fairness, Apple have made similar mistakes at times. Podcasting started and grew without them. They were very quick to tap into it though which comes back to your point about Jobs being a perfectionist who doesn't want to release something until it works perfectly. Incidentally the Zune sharing wouldn't fit too well with the iTS as it functions currently. It would however be perfect for the wide range of playsforsure stores.
the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
You know that Zune allows you to send songs to another Zune over wireless?
Although you, as a Zune owner, can block particular Zunes from sending stuff to you, other Zunes start off in an unblocked state. Do you know what Microsoft have done? They've invented a new kind of spam. Companies will hack the standard and create a box which will automatically find every Zune in the vicinity and send their (audio/video) adverts to them.
You'll have Zune users in public places swearing at the constant interruptions and hitting the 'do not accept' button.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Sitting on the subway, listening to my Zune when I hear a quick couple beeps during my song. My Zune is telling me another Zune just entered my wireless radius. I jump to the wireless screen with one button, and see the user 'Loves2Splooge' has 1242 songs to share. I am able to browse his list as easily as I browse mine - I can even preview the song wirelessly before transfering to my Zune. I take about 30 tracks and permanently store them to my Zune.
THAT would be an iPod killer... what makes it sad is that it's only the stupid software that limits the aforementioned ideas. I hope someone is able to come out with a custom OS that enables users to do just what I've described.
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If you look at explosions in other gadgets and human nature... Steve is wrong about Zune's music sharing. Here is why...
Kids love cell phones. They love text messaging. They also love text messaging on their computers. One common theme is to express their individuality by publishing What they're listening to right now. Sometimes in a chat they'll even include a link to the song. Couple this with increasing introverted behavior. Kids will love the ability to share a song via wireless. There is this innate need to get inside the headspace...
Sharing a headphone requires an unwanted and unwelcome [physical] contact.
The Zune wireless can be extended to do more than share music. Its personal publishing.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
People work around iTunes DRM automatically. They don't even realize it exists.
I've seen it happen more than once. Two weeks ago, I visited a friend of mine who had recently bought a Mac. She had all her music in iTunes, most of it from non-legal download sites. She couldn't find a particular song, so I showed her the iTunes music store. She found the song and bought two versions of it.
She then proceeded to tell her sister that she had found the song they were looking for. Her sister told her to get her a copy. What did my friend do? Burn it to an audio CD and give it to her sister.
Now, they all are on the same wireless network. They have a minitower, two laptops and the MacBook. They could theoretically share music through their network. They don't. I doubt they even know the option exists. If they share files, they send them through MSN, but they only do that for smaller files. Burning a CD is quite simply the natural and easy way to share music.
Bottom line?
From my experience with "normal" computer users, most people don't even realize that these files are DRM'd. The iTunes DRM lets them pretty much do whatever they usually do without interfering.