RSSThe Chances of Zune's Success
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published September 15, 2006, 9:53 PM
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It may not be fair to criticize Microsoft for not divulging every little detail about Zune on Thursday. After all, Apple is the acknowledged master of teasing its customers with nothing.
"Apple has raised expectation setting to a high art," said Levy. "Even if they have nothing to announce, they often do it with such flair that, quite literally, they will have the masses just hanging on their every word. Whereas despite Microsoft's relative size and the depth of its resources, Microsoft has not been a major player in the consumer electronics space to date."
In fact, this is actually only the second major consumer product line Microsoft has ever launched (although some at Microsoft would count mice and keyboards). In the face of new competition from Microsoft's former partners, the company must now find a way to distinguish Zune not just against iPod, but on its own merits. What is it that makes the Zune more than just another MP3 player?
Levy has one potential candidate: the pricing model for Zune Marketplace, which he believes to be unique among any other service in this category. While Microsoft omitted details there as well, Zune Marketplace users can opt to purchase songs a la carte or to subscribe, but may also employ what's called a "Zune Pass," to purchase a block of time during which they can download all they want.
"When Apple first launched the iPod, it wasn't so much about the hardware as it was about the 'triad' of the device, the iTunes software, and the iTunes store," Levy reminded us. "Microsoft is hoping as well that the market looks past the hardware - which is differentiated slightly, but not in a revolutionary manner - but to its pricing model, which truly is a large step forward compared to all the other online stores that are currently out there. Right now, Microsoft has the bragging rights to say they were the first ones to move forward with all-in-one pricing."
NPD's Ross Rubin completely disagrees. From his perspective, both the Zune Pass model and the vertically-integrated business model pioneered by Apple are not only less-than-revolutionary, but downright ordinary. "It's just more of a question of whether the business model is sustainable," Rubin said, "and it doesn't sound as though Microsoft is looking to do anything that unusual in terms of the business model."
Later, Rubin added that any distinction between the Zune Pass pricing model and what Napster or others provide today is "almost semantic."
Presently, there are two classes of iPod/iTunes users, Info-Tech's Levy believes: There's one class who entered the iPod market having already owned hundreds of CDs, and who then immediately transferred as much content as they could.
Then there's another class who belong to a younger demographic and who don't own a lot of CDs today, not so much because they're young but because they're money-conscious. While that latter class might appreciate the ability to tote a device that holds as many as 7,500 songs, as Microsoft claims, they don't exactly have $7,500 lying around at the moment.
In turn, Levy feels the Zune Pass model could appeal to a new and intermediate class of PMP consumer. "For someone who isn't rolling in money, who's a younger demographic because they have less disposable income, or they won't spend it on content," he told BetaNews, "this is a compelling way to get them up to speed much faster than they would if they were just following the traditional iPod model."
Jupiter Research analyst and vice president Michael Gartenberg is looking to Zune's sharing features as a differentiator in the marketplace. "It's an important feature that isn't in the iPod and will likely have some appeal to the target demographic of 18-24. We know that sharing files legally device to device is of interest to about 11% of consumers and in the 18-24 range jumps to about 18%," he said.
Next: Zune vs. iPod...or Zune vs. Zen?
Serious comment:
For those actually seriously interested in Zune, have a read of this article here. It makes VERY interesting reading indeed.
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1293
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|I think a 'walkman' should cost me $99 tops with good headphones. And NO copyright hassle.
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|ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
This is the biggest snoozer piece of crap.
Micro-sux (and this time its even truer than ever)
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|>This is the biggest snoozer piece of crap.
Yes. I agree. Your post is very boring.
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|What your all bla bla about? Nowhere is said MS will drop PlaysForSure. What if? what if? what if? Just sit and relax, use your IPOD, Zune, Zen, PlayForSure device what ever. Watch your video play your music, or you all want to do that on 10 devices at once? Who cares how a file is tranfered to your device in which standard? Copy paste is still the most used method for people anyway. What if Apple goes bankrupt next year? It is so easy to guess, keep it by facts. All those companies are commercial and want to get your $$$ easy as that no difference between Apple or MS or any other brand. And the one who feels sorry for all those PlayForSure companies... Wake up please, you thinnk they stick to this format for years and years to come? All business is a momentum, they know precisely for how many years to go, really think there was no line in their contracts with MS stating that they would give it a certain amount of years before to drop the concept? Keep spending your dollars as you do anyway and all companies know that PlayForSure ;-)
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|Yeah, I especially like the comments I have read insinuating that MS intentionally misled its partners down the PlaysForSure path so it could swoop in an take the market. Let's not acknowledge that none of its partners could build the consumer confidence and recognition to compete with Apple. "Everything is MS' fault".
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|If a company comes up with a competitive OS to Microsoft, it's all good.
If Microsoft comes up competitive product to another company, they are evil.
Ummm. Does that attitude sound screwed up to anyone else?
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|if it were only so simple as that.
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|That's just what it may look like on the surface. There is so much more to it. I believe your thinking about this the wrong way.
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|I've read that their old DRM system won't be compatible with the Zune, only the newer DRM.
That's kind of unpleasant for people who bought into the whole "licencing music" downloads idea isn't it?
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|So I'm thinking about it wrong...
How?
Because I'm not jumping off the "I hate Microsoft" Lemming cliff?
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|>if it were only so simple as that.
I'm guessing it is exactly that simple or you would have offered an intelligent rebuff and not a trite dismissal.
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|I know I for one could care less about this thing. I'm getting the new iPod. (echoed by 100 million other consumers this and the following holiday season unless MS can come up with something that really matters. Zune is bulls***.)
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|How does it feel to be a Leming?
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|Everything is built round the iPod, all the plugins, all the software for converting video to the correct size, and all the accessories too.
It's not that it's the best product any more, it's that it's the best supported.
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|There is no point in this. This kind of device (especially from MS) is a waste. I can't legally own enough music to put on one of these things to make it worth having. Anything I do end up legally able to put on it would be so controlled by someone else that I would end up no better off than if I were to be listening to the radio.
Would this thing have wi-fi or sat linkup for MS updates or would I have to plug it into a router every night? How secure is this thing? How easy would it be to get hacked and lead to some guy in a car 10 blocks away being able to see and hear everything that is happening around me? What kind of net access would this thing have? would it require some insane version of IE? How often would I have to call MS tech support for a new product key if I decide to use it to it's potential? How much control would I actually have over this thing once I've actually paid real money for it?
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|good points,
"I can't legally own enough music to put on one of these things to make it worth having"
that one's my favorite
lol
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|Those are some great points. I have no doubt drm will own this thing. Being hacked with wifi, imagine that with an portable music player. Someone steals all your music, erases your hard drive and causes it to hard crash, requiring it be serviced by microsoft.
Then you have viruses, worms and everything else. This will all require updates, for years after its release. Gee doesn't that sound like windows?
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|Five stars to this post! Those are the main reasons why I am still sticking to vinyl.
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|Typical Microsoft. If you can't beat them, stick it to them, just like when we were in kindergarten. This is a step up from their insideous ways. Fanfaring the industry with Play For Sure, get people to come on board, then come out with your own inhouse solution and drop the ball on partners. That neatly takes care of the competition.
Frankly said, Zen is a better quality machine. iPods are nice and Zune has interesting functionalities added.
Watch Microsoft step down again to their common low level by underselling the competition. It's good to kick up the competition, I agree but hailing a system as THE solution, bringin on people and when finally there is enough movement, turning against these "allies" by bringing out your own system using your in-house software is not free-enterprise or capitalism... It's stupid especially in a market where the latest statisics clearly show the lack of confidence consumers have in Microsoft.
Piss off enough people and they will eventually get it. Good job Microsoft. No one can do it quite like that. The arrogance of yesteryear doesn't work anymore. You've lost the sympathy steam if you care to look around.
And please, cut the "free market/capitalism" crap out. It goes hand in hand with intelligence which there isn't much of these days, let alone finesse. Need examples? Look at Dell and their PDAs.
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|Do you think anyone will be joining or partnering up with them again? Probably will I have no doub the companies who joined up had a better chance then going at apple alone without play for sure.
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|Let's wait and see what Microsoft has to offer. As the review above clearly says any other player on the market is worth more than an iPOD, and looking at the features what Zune has to offer, it may turn out to be the dark horse this holiday season. Knowing MS, they probably price it $50-$70 less than a 30gb iPOD.
As for as the software, MS already has a stable code base in WMP11, so putting on a new skin for it for Zune would make it just about right unlike a hurried effort in ITunes 7 which has caused umpteen problems with "early adopters".
As far as the issue of right goes, in a "free market/capitalist" environment, Microsoft tomorrow can even sell Microwave ovens. It's their money to invest and if a product sells, why not ?
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|I am disappointed that Microsoft has abandoned the PlayForSure infrastructure.
I don't see why Microsoft and MTV can't just combine their marketing efforts and promote WMP11, URGE, and Zune as an ideal platform. Given enough effort, people will come to associate the three components together as a closed ecosystem without it actually having to be closed.
This would allow those of us who have already invested in PlayForSure hardware and music downloads to easily transition over to the Zune player and management software if we so choose. Instead, Microsoft has chosen to exclude its own established PlayForSure user base which included everyone out there that already has Windows Media Player installed.
WMA files downloaded from the new Zune music store will be incompatible with existing WMA portables. WMA files downloaded from existing music stores will be incompatible with the new Zune player.
Everything people have spouted about WMA files being evil has come true. As a format, if Microsoft cannot keep WMA files standard then what sort of future is there for WMA a few years down the line?
Should have listened to the anti-Microsofties and stuck to MP3s.
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|"Everything people have spouted about WMA files being evil has come true.
Should have listened to the anti-Microsofties and stuck to MP3s."
Yup
:-)
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|I didn't listen to either.... I use Ogg; with my iAudio X5 60gb.
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|How do they not have a right to develop hardware or software or anything they want. If their is a market for such product, they have a right to produce it.
I really hope you don't have an xbox 360, if you clearly cannot make up your mind, since Microsoft has as much business being in the console business as the portable mp3 player business.
You can take that for exactly what I said. Sure being able to control system for the other choices paid content, is perhaps dirty, you can't admit that its actually a good move.
If somebody wants to offer another choice for Creative then PlaysForSure, then I challenge people to develop a system, Microsoft took the challenge.
Is it their fault that nobody was else took the Challenge?
Original Challenge:
Develop a system compared to iTunes or Napster.
I would rather Microsoft provide us choices, then what they did 30 years ago by I admit, throwing dirt in companies faces if they didn't use their product.
But you could hardly say the samething about PlaysForSure and Zen Marketplace. Like I said perhaps they are in the sandbox, but they are playing nice and sharing their toys.
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|"How do they not have a right to develop hardware or software or anything they want. If their is a market for such product, they have a right to produce it."
I agree completely, but that's not how Microsoft do it, is it?
It's called leveraging a monopoly. Essentially, the use of an existing monopoly in one market to leverage their way into another.
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|Does MS have a monopoly?
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|Yeah well once again here is microsoft sticking their ugly head in a market it has no business going. Fine they rolled out play for sure, obviously that was just for fun. This is only around to do one thing, damage Apple's primary revenue stream. Just like windows live search is to damage google's stream. This is meant to provide customers with something new or cool. This is what makes them different then any other company. They are greedy, sneaky and just plain rediculous.
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|I believe it's called "Free Enterprise."
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|...
"I believe it's called 'Free Enterprise'."
...
Quite so !
...
The Computer Rodent
...
"Share a file /
Be deported to
Detroit"
...
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|Free Enterprise is simply another term for capitalism, so try and use the correct terms.
Whilst I don't believe there is anything inherently wrong with the core tenets of capitalism, I do believe it to be a naive approach to think that capitalism without checks is a good idea.
I also consider the idea that a corporation may now claim "human rights" to be abhorrent and we have already seen problems caused by that idea already.
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|Yeah... "different than any other company" Sorry but that is just naive if you think that's not what every single large company does. I notice you mention Apple, and Google. The companies that do the exact same thing... just like everyone else.
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|I'm getting too old for this ... starting to miss vinyl.
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|did you even read the article?
they aren't using the same technology that they have been developing for years - ie WM DRM, WindowsMedia Player, etc and are creating a completely new DRM solution & windows application (ie the zune itunes app) for this.
They have to if they are going to do the 'DRM on the fly' of your mp3's so they can be transfered via the wireless (which is what the Zune will do, infect your mp3's with DRM). The existing MS DRM code won't do this kind of on the fly encryption.
Think Windows Media Player version 1.0 - how 'stable' was this?
Microsoft has burnt alot of bridges with the Zune, and combined with the fact that pretty much everyone hates them these days (from wall street on down), the Zune is a non-starter.
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|Apparently, vinyl is "trendy" again... At least amongst some of the newer UK-based bandsand their fans. I don't know how long that will continue though. Until they get bored, I suppose.
It's nice to see cover art at a decent size though. :-)
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