The Zune Cometh

Well, except for those hiding under a mountain of used iPod batteries, it's fairly well known that the Zune iPod-wannabe killer is coming out Monday/Tuesday. There's a piece in the NYTimes about counting on the wireless part of the Zune to take down the iPod as well as some interviews with people involved in the creation. But OTOH, RoughlyDrafted (which has had a series of pieces about the Zune) points out some issues with the DRM systems, and forecasts a number of issues — and also calls out what they called a "Digg Fraud Campaign". But soon — the market decides.

Comments

batteries

[geoffspear]

Well, except for those hiding under a mountain of used iPod batteries

I, for one, can't wait to get my hands on a Zune, with its new infinitely-rechargable battery technology. It uses a nickel-adamantium alloy, right?

Re:batteries

[rlp]

Zune, with its new infinitely-rechargable battery technology. It uses a nickel-adamantium alloy, right?

That's absolutely correct. They're manufactured by Sony.

Re:The War of the News & Products

[TomHandy]

There's a pretty big flaw in this comparison though. The TV ads you talked about do not have their origins hidden, etc. They are clearly television ads, it is clearly identified who paid for the ad (Apple), and anyone who sees it can clearly tell it is a standard paid for ad.

Now, stuff like this digg thing, is pretty different. Setting up anonymous blogs, etc. to give the impression that the story is independent and not coming from the company paying for it and doing the marketing is something different. Same thing with slashvertisements.

Not necessarily saying anything is better or worse, but I think there's a pretty big distinction to be made between things that are clearly identified as advertisements, and things that are not clearly identified as advertisements in order to give the impression that they are something else.

Not a big intro

[sbraab]

I noticed while looking through the newspaper adds this weekend that there isn't much of a marketing hype around Zune. It was buried in all the adds and the biggest selling point I found was that you could put your own picture on on the background. It was also interesting to see that the Microsoft name was no where to be found. I was really expecting to see front pages ads, WIRELESS in big letters and Microsofts weight behind it all. It was also interesting to note that the accessory packs advertised with it were $80-$100, I guess they are trying to beat apple at the sucker game. All in all I didn't see anything to win over the mass market.

OOooo, I hate that

[ackthpt]

Dislocating my jaw when I yawn like that.

Re:obligatory post ...

[Anonymous Coward]

...that only computes for three days.

I've noticed that this round of MS products...

[bealzabobs_youruncle]

has been very heavily promoted via astro-turfing. Every BETA and RC release of Vista was followed within an hour or so with 2-4 articles explaining why it was great and apologizing for it's lack of features. Some were from legit news outlets, others fan sites and blogs, but the quantity and timing felt forced to me. I see the same thing with Zune; I keep seeing articles telling me it's an iPod killer but then explaining why it's deficiencies are not only acceptable, but a benefit to me as a consumer??

I think this will work with the OS as poeple don't really try to understand how their PC works, but I question this dethroning the simplicity and popularity of the iPod and iTMS combo.

I will also point out the obvious that MS has seeded quite a few landscapers here on Slashdot lately, but I'm sure one will come along soon and prove my point...