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Zune Business Dev Executive Moves On

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fleeing-a-sinking-ship-perhaps dept.

An anonymous reader slipped us a link to the Seattle PI article discussing Bryan Lee's departure from Microsoft. The former business development VP for the Zune has parted ways with the company for personal reasons now that 'Zune was launched and on track'. This means that J. Allard will be stepping up into fill the void. Allard was instrumental in bringing the first Xbox console to market, and was the VP in charge of technical matters for the Zune. An analyst with Gartner is quoted as saying this move means not all is well in the land of Zune, but a rumour on the CrunchGear site indicates that Microsoft is planning on stepping things up later this year with a Zune cellphone. A smartphone designed to compete with Apple in that market it would seem, despite whatever problems may be going on, the company is still rather fond of the strange little brown device.

10 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. On track all right... by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 5, Funny

    This might be the wrong name, but he sounds like a guy I talked about with my (occasionally gullible ...) mom about a month ago.

    "Oh, [UbuntuDupe], did you hear the story about this genius they have at Microsoft and all this brilliant ideas?"

    "Like what?"

    "Well, he was the mastermind behind the Xbox!"

    "Um ... the Xbox has been a loss for five years now. That doesn't sound like it's much of a success for MS yet."

    "But ... it's going to pay off eventually."

    "I'm sure. Anything else?"

    "Well, um, they say he was also the head of the Zune project."

    "...? The Zune is a basically a butt of everyone's jokes now and has sold very poorly."

    "Well, they also said he has a new brilliant idea for an upcoming product."

    "But it hasn't been released yet?"

    "No..."

    ***

    Btw, for those of your unfamiliar with American business, leaving "for personal reasons" is code for "We're dumping you, you miserable failure, but we'll sugarcoat it to salvage your dignity."

    --
    Apology to Ubuntu forum.
    1. Re:On track all right... by Infonaut · · Score: 4, Informative

      Btw, for those of your unfamiliar with American business, leaving "for personal reasons" is code for "We're dumping you, you miserable failure, but we'll sugarcoat it to salvage your dignity."

      Usually that's the case, but sometimes it refers to a a situation in which the person leaving is so fed up with the organization that they simply must either leave in order to preserve their sanity. The company then uses the normal incantation to the press, to make it seem as though the person leaving was the failure, rather than the execs to whom he reported. I'm not saying that's the case here, but there's usually a lot more going on with these things than meets the eye.

      --
      Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    2. Re:On track all right... by badasscat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Xbox is not losing money anymore. They make money on it!

      Incorrect. MS's entertainment division (which includes both the Xbox and Zune, but not much more than that) lost $277 million in the most recently announced quarter, which was through December 2006. It lost $275 million in the same quarter last year, so this is not even an improvement, much less a turn from losing money to making money.

      No doubt the Zune dragged on those numbers a bit, but it's not nearly as costly of a product as the 360. The 360 should be subsidizing the Zune at this point, and it clearly isn't. The entire entertainment division is still being subsidized by Office and Windows. MS has lost billions on the Xbox and Xbox 360 and will probably never make that investment back.

  2. personal reasons ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny


    like ethics, morality and a sense of dignity

    1. Re:personal reasons ? by Reverend528 · · Score: 5, Funny

      He just felt it was time to squirt over to another company.

      --
      Badass Resumes
  3. Zune cellphone? by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Jeezus. Is there any single market that Microsoft WON'T try and get its grubby little hands into? I don't really get why companies like Microsoft need to invade every single market they possibly can for no other reason than "because it's there". They're like some sort of cancer. I wish they would just focus on making their OS and dev tools work. Every time my Visual Studio crashes, or my computer reboots without warning, and I lose productivity, I hate them a little more. Not because they are Microsoft, but because all their effort into trying squeeze every last drop of money out of every possible market takes effort AWAY from them making their other shit work right to begin with. How long have they been making OSes? You'd think that at least THAT would work right by now...

    Maybe my coffee just hasn't kicked in yet...

  4. I'm not suprised he left..... by 8127972 · · Score: 4, Funny

    .... because anybody would be sick of getting squirted on a daily basis.

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
  5. If Apple made a Magic Pony, would Microsoft? by Nova+Express · · Score: 5, Funny
    Steve Jobs, Macworld, 2008: "We've invented the iPony!" (pulls back sheet to reveal shining white magical pony prancing on stage) "His name is Starshine, and we made him from moonbeams, fairy dust, suger, spice, and a tiny bit of neatsfoot oil. He can sing, dance, do your algebra homework, and go from 0-60 in 4.9 seconds!"

    Steve Ballmer, 6 months later: "We've invented the ZunePony!" (pulls back sheet to reveal hideous brown zombie pony with mismatched eyes and visible stitching across its reanimated carcase and reeking of death and sulfer) "His name is Mordheim, and we made him from corpses, discarded auto parts and some leftover copies of Microsoft Bob. He can shamble nearly 20 feet in any direction, emit unearthly screams like a damned soul, and feast on the flesh of the living!" (At this point, the zombie pony stumbles toward the camera and starts eating the brain of an AP reporter. Thankfully, this doesn't seem to have any impact on the reporter's career.)

    Newstory six months later: "Microsoft says it's quite happy to capture 2% of the Magic Pony market this year. 'Just wait for ZunePony 2.0!' said Ballmer. "We've added claws and horns!"

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

    1. Re:If Apple made a Magic Pony, would Microsoft? by Rocketship+Underpant · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hm, the ZunePony ... will Microsoft abandon their BraysForSure platform with that one?

      --
      He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
  6. Masters of the Zuniverse by jonesvery · · Score: 4, Interesting

    An analyst with Gartner is quoted as saying this move means not all is well in the land of Zune, but a rumour on the CrunchGear site indicates that Microsoft is planning on stepping things up later this year with a Zune cellphone. A smartphone designed to compete with Apple in that market it would seem, despite whatever problems may be going on, the company is still rather fond of the strange little brown device.

    Lest we forget: the uninspiring launch of "the Zune" appears to have overshadowed the fact that Microsoft has consistently viewed (and presented) "Zune" as a brand that will cover an ecosystem of interrelated devices, not the specific PMP that was released a couple of months ago. I'm sure that the company would have loved to have an immediate hit, they're in this for the long term. Think XBox: Microsoft is willing to put cash into short-term life support if they believe that there's long-term potential.

    Remember also that even before anyone outside of Microsoft had heard the word "Zune," Steve Ballmer was hinting at a communications/music convergence device as one of the iPod-killing-project's outputs. In the March 2006 interview that gained attention for the "Ballmer has brainwashed his children" comments, Ballmer had this to say in response to the question "think you can crack the iPod market?"

    It's going to take an innovative proposition. In five years are people really going to carry two devices? One device that is their communication device, one device that is music? There's going to be a lot of opportunities to get back in that game. We want to be in that game. Expect to see announcements from us in that area in the next 12 months.

    This is not to say that I see very rosy prospects in the short (or medium, or long) term for the Zune, but simply that Microsoft's direction has been pretty clear for a while; unfortunately for them, it appears that this direction has been pretty clear to Apple, as well.

    I've written about recent Zune-related happenings in more detail here, but the short version is that if I were Bryan Lee I'd be taking some personal time, too -- Microsoft isn't out of this game by any means, but despite their (apparently) best efforts, hardly a week goes by without something popping up that puts Microsoft in the position of playing catch-up on yet another front: weak Zune launch, disconnect between the marketing and the reality of "the social," the development of public "music download stations," the iPhone...it's getting to be a pretty long list.

    It's going to be a brutal couple of years for the Masters of the Zuniverse, no matter what happens.

    --

    * * *
    It is a dada story -- it has no moral.