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Zune Team Getting Amnesty for iPod Use
MsManhattan writes "The Zune development team at Microsoft is apparently offering amnesty to employees who give up their iPods in favor of using the Zune MP3 player. An MSNBC employee has posted a photo on Flickr of the company's 'iPod Amnesty Bin,' which sports an image of a bitten green apple and the words 'Bite me.' Whether it's to be taken seriously or is a joke to boost employee morale is anyone's guess, and naturally no one at Microsoft was available for comment. From what can be seen in the photo, only a few early-model iPods have been deposited."
I saw the new ad by Microsoft (on American Idol, at least they're finally picking a demographic):
I asked my wife to view the ad (tivo), as I suspected the "uploading one song" (tune?, track?, can't remember) on one Zune screen, and the "downloading one song" on the screen of a Zune behind the first did not convey the "sharing" notion. Sure enough, when asked, she said "of course" she understood -- it was demonstrating how a Zune could upload and download music from the computer wirelessly (something I don't even think it really is capable of).
I explained what it really demonstrated, and she thought that was kind of cool, but I told her she'd have to
- encounter a fellow Zuner within fifty feet of her (unlikely)
- could only play the shared tune 3 times OR
- within 3 days, whichever came first
- live with drm encumbered music
All of which she says (said) "ewwwwww!" to, and not in a good way. Zune is hardly a product that lights a fire under any consumers' desires.So, according to a manager at Redmond, there are ~16,000 iPods at MS-HQ. From looking at that bin, they've managed to get about 0.1% of those people to "upgrade" to a zune...
I especially love the employee who gained brownie-points by putting something (anything!) in the ipod-bin, even if it was only an iPod *cover* [huge grin]. I wonder if Steve (that's Balmer, in case of confusion) was watching him walk on by, and he thought he had to put *something* in...
If MS can only get 0.1% of their *own* people to switch, they ain't gonna make it too big in the far more neutral marketplace...
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
General Motors is granting amnesty to all employees who trade in their Acura TL for a Chevy Malibu.
Also, Nokia is granting amnesty to all employees who trade in their Nintendo DS for an N-Gage.
Interestingly, there has been an increase in the number of Acura TLs driven by GM lower management...
I like basketball!!1!
Isn't this a bit like trading in your mercedes for a cavalier and the ability to hear your friends tales of where he has been with his cavalier? Doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.
Isn't the Zune an "off-brand music player"???
I'm missing something here. Why would anyone deposit a few hundred dollars worth of hardware into essentially a trash bin for the sake of an anonymous show of company loyalty?
I would think that the Zune team should be working on making a better mp3 player instead of trying to guilt trip MS employees into giving up their iPods.
Heck, it should be mandatory for every single employee on the Zune team to have an iPod just so they know what the best in breed mp3 player looks like.
I really do feel bad for the Devs working on the zune. It must be tough to have the skills, the money, and the facilities to create something really really truly cool....but be held back by the fact that you "cool new toy" won't be allowed by upper management for fear of lawsuit. I mean, imagine if the zune didn't have the DRM built into the wireless song swap feature....that is just really really damn cool! I mean, imagine sitting in your cube, and talking to that cute girl across the row about some song that she should just oh so totally have, and then being able to just go "HERE!" and give it to her!! I would imagine that if the zune caught on, some cool linux dev would probably make a "zune server" or something like that, similar to the mt-daapd projectf (to make iTunes think that your linux box is sharing a song library with it), but for the wireless functionality of the zune.
THAT would be freaking cool.
FYI..i don't work for microsoft...i know that sounded like an ad for the zune or something...I own an iPod in fact. I'm just saying, keep in mind that the engineers I'm sure are working on this device aren't evil RIAA lawyers, they're geeks. It must just really really really suck to not be able to put all the cool features i'm sure you would want into a project that you're working on...
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
"Most of the people [working on] Zune would want to have an iPod to keep track of the competition,"
That's right, how can you copy your competitor if you don't have any of their products on hand? Oops, did I say "copy"? I meant "compete with".. my bad..
plug their dirty headphones in your ear?
just plug your headphones into their ipod.
What's the matter, you don't have your mp3 player with you? Well then, you wouldn't be able to share with the zune either.