RSSZune Executive Leaves Microsoft
By the Betanews Staff | Published February 1, 2007, 12:18 PM
One of the executives responsible for the launch of Microsoft's answer to the ubiquitous iPod is leaving the company, it was announced Wednesday. Entertainment and Device corporate vice president Bryan Lee will leave to pursue personal interests. Replacing him will be J Allard, who was responsible with running the company's Xbox business. Microsoft gave no further details as to why Lee had made the decision to leave.
Lee does not leave the Zune division without some success. 10.2 percent of players shipped in December with hard disk drives were Zunes, although overall the Zune was only able to grab a 2.5 percent share. Microsoft expects to sell about one million units by June.
J Allard is responsible for Zune, but whomever at Microsoft thought it was a good idea should be fired for lacking a basic sense of reality. Fat, overpriced, loaded with DRM (a la itunes), and a bad design and interface make it another Microsoft Bob.
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|If this guy behind Zune doesn't even support Zune, then how is Zune going to survive?
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|"Pursue other interests" is just a nice public relations term for "gave him his walking papers".
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|What's the big deal. People leave for various reasons. Maybe he make enough and want to take an early retirement. Or Better yet, he think the time is right, and he wants to start his own business.
This player is a sucess, only come out for 2 months, and it grabbed 2.5% of market. If you need more example, just look at IE and Xbox. How long does iPod took off? After 4 generations, and only port it's iTune to Windows then it took off.
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|the ship is sinking fast
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|Betanews is just the Microsoft news now. thanks, I'm done here. I will never come back to this crap site.
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|Well--we won't miss you.
Seriously, I don't recall ever seeing you post here--perhaps all of your comments had a negative score (and it was before I chose the option to display those)?
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|I think the Zune belongs in the XBOX division anyway. The Zune has some serious interface functionality potential with the xbox and even media center.
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|And who says it has to be anything related to MS or Zune? People leave companies for other reasons too you know...
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|Probably got let go for bringing his IPOD to work.
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|Like rats leaving a sinking I-pod clone...
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|Hmmm...I think that tells me perhaps Microsoft was expecting more from Zune than they are getting...
Perhaps Bill is already losing his influence over Microsoft, because frankly, Zune never sounded like a bright idea to me since the beginning.
I'm still not positive of all this, though, so to be certain, I'll wait until next week and see if Microsoft has incredibly low numbers when it comes to Zune sales.
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|If you knew the success he's had at Microsoft, you'd know that Bryan's not leaving for any reason other than his own. Much of this is documented in Xbox 360 Unleashed.
As for the state of Zune, anyone that's declaring Zune a failure already is incredibly myopic. Since when has any Microsoft product been a roaring success at v1.0? Most first and even second versions suck. Even the first XBox was probably wasn't as successful as Microsoft would have liked, although one could argue that that had more to do with release timing relative to PS2 - something they readily fixed in BIG way this generation, selling 10,600,000 units to PS3's 300,000 units to date.
No, this is a v1.0 product and it's going to get some marginal adoption - not a lot, but some. And at 10%, if that number really is true, that's actually quite amazing considering the lock Apple has on the market.
Instead Microsoft will follow the same, damned formula they've used repeatedly for all their products. Release an initial product with a few solid features, hone it in v2.0, and get it pretty much right in v3.0. And they can do it because they've got more money than anyone else, and they've got the marketing & sales engine to get it out to the entire world.
And what feature does Zune v1.0 have? Why networking of course: Microsoft has a patent on the networked media player. Recall that all a Zune is, is a Hard Drive with a WiFi adapter attached to it. Trying thinking about the potential of this combination:
- Send & receive media/files from laptops or Wifi connected PC's running Zune software
- Playback Zune content wirelessly on a home theatre through Xbox 360
- Purchase music at Starbucks using TMobile hotspots
- Multicast audio/video from your Zune to others like a DJ
- Receive media broadcasts (like TV/Radio channels) from Windows-based WiFi connected networks
- Playback to WiFi connected speaker systems like those sold by Altec Lansing
- Project video on Wifi connected VGA projectors
- Act as a storage medium for XBox 360. Instead of 64MB memory cards, store game saves & profiles wirelessly on your Zune.
The bottom line is that Zune is not so much a device as it is the "concept" of the "affordable, portable WiFi-connected hard drive" and that's what makes Zune powerful... not its initial physical implementation, which frankly everyone knows by now was a rush collaboration job done in tandem with Toshiba & its Gigabeat design. Why else would they have not included features like "Bluetooth headset" connectivity & native Windows Vista integration?
No, this is just the beginning of Zune's existence, and the ROM upgrades being released is proof: It's becoming VERY obvious that Microsoft could easily turn off the DRM component the moment it becomes feasible for them to legally do so. The question then is, "When will the media studios acquiesce to such an idea and throw in the towel on music DRM?"
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|Well said. I agree 100%. I wonder what iPod fangirls will come up with.
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|I have to agree too.
That makes complete sense, and its pretty much exactly how I feel about it as well.
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|Well, I didn't know that about Bryan, but I do now.
You certainly have a big point with all of this--I also agree that the whole 1.0 2.0 3.0 thing will likely apply the same way with Vista--although IMHO, Vista is actually a much better v. 1.0 product than Microsoft's usual 1.0 products. Time will tell.
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|If only I could figure out exactly why it's a better product than XP and worth getting.....
Can't see it - and I don't miss it.
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