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Critical Review of the Zune
ceallaigh writes "Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times has a critical review of the Zune. "Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity."
Andy Ihnatko is a former MacWorld columnist from 10-15 years ago. The slant of the article shouldn't really be surprising in that light.
Seriously? I'm pretty sure most iRiver players have supported OGG for years... I know that my iHP 120 (now the H10) has supported ogg natively since I got it (at least three years ago), although I've now upgraded to RockBox which works more or less flawlessly on it. iRiver products may not be super-mainstream, but they're fairly open, especially after adding RockBox, and they just work.
Did you see the pool? They flipped the bitch!
A friend of mine is the assistant to a very rich hedge fund exec here in NY. She's worked for him for over three years and has never gotten a raise nor has she received a bonus. She is generously salaried, however.
When I asked her about how she felt about never receiving a bonus or raise despite the enormous windfalls the company has enjoyed during her time there, as well as the fact that much of the rest of the company has received generous bonuses at the end of the year - she replied with something to the affect of: "What they say is true. More money equals more problems. He has so many problems that I feel sorry for him. I could never ask him for a raise until his circumstances get better."
This is a man in his late 30s, of pristine health, of gorgeous wife and numerous equally stunning out-in-the-open mistresses (open marriage), two healthy children, worth $500 million easily. And my friend feels "sorry" for him.
I asked him once (I was a consultant for the firm at the time) about his relationship with her. His reply: "I'm worth $500 million... she lives with her mother, but I know that she feels sorry for me and places my trivial problems on a par with her own arguably more pertinent and pressing problems. You can't BUY that, and indeed, I don't need to."
So I can imagine that as far as you're concerned, you are probably a bit more like my friend than you are like Microsoft, which makes it absurd that you "feel sorry" for them considering the relative positioning.
As of right now, Xbox 360 is the best console on the market, in part because of prudent and bullish positioning and a strong emphasis on the development of xbox live, in addition to having the largest next gen game library. www.live.com is a viable competitor to google in terms of product offerings and it's experiencing organic growth, microsoft automotive is in about 25 models of cars for at least ten carmakers (and is on the rise), and corporate uptake from 2000/xp to xp/vista is going to be a cash cow for the next five years. If they can get wireless and marketing right, the zune becomes a significant competitor in the dap marketplace, especially because the ipod is already in the "late adopters" phase of the Rogers Bell Curve for innovation adoption (and if you ignore the christmas 05 quarter, the adoption rate is textbook rogers bell curve). The only direction for ipod sales is down. the brand has had its run. Microsoft has its first generation Zune out as the ipod's market share recedes (and will get real world feedback) and is thus poised to get the second generation out at the laggard phase of the Ipod's Rogers Bell Curve, which poises them to replace the ipod. It's prudent positioning.
un burrito me trampeó.