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.'"

Comments

Doublespeak he can't avoid...

[argent]

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."

Just got this from a friend:

[ptomblin]

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.

How Zune's Wireless Should Work...

[OverDrive33]

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.