Why Microsoft's Zune Scares Apple to the Core 574
BoredStiff writes "Computerworld has an article examining Microsoft's plans to launch a competitor to the Apple iPod, the wireless media player called Zune. The article lists five reasons why Apple may fear the Zune, and why it won't be as easily smacked down as the dozens of mp3 players before it have been. The Zune isn't just a music player, the article argues. Think of it as a portable, wireless, hardware version of MySpace. With the Zune, Microsoft is trying to launch a consumer media 'perfect storm.'" From the article: "Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. The Zune interface is just like a miniature version of the Windows Media Center user interface and is very similar to some elements of Vista. Apple fans are overconfident in the iPod because Apple once commanded 92% of music player market share, a number that has since fallen to around 70%. About 30 million people own iPods. But Microsoft owns more than 90% of the worldwide operating systems market (compared with Apple's roughly 5%), representing some 300 million people. The company expects to have 200 million Vista users within two years."
Re:ZUNE: nothing to see, move along. (Score:2, Informative)
A Shorter Summary (Score:5, Informative)
Mike Elgan is a technology writer and former editor of Windows Magazine.
Re:Limited playback (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Antitrust ? (Score:3, Informative)
What, precisely, is illegal about this?
Leveraging a monopoly to gain market share in another market is illegal. In this case, MS has bundled their software music player with Windows, which is illegal in and of itself. That player plays a DRM-ladem music format owned by Microsoft. If their hardware and software players play it and that ability is not offered to all other software player and hardware player manufacturers, free of charge, then that too is illegal.
Re:Zune? Puh-leeze. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Zune? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think you understand the functionality... (Score:4, Informative)
The tiny screen was sufficient... for a music player. No need to have a huge, battery-sucking screen to see the currently playing track information. The 5G (There is no 6G yet, the recent Apple anouncements were for minor revisions to the 5G, a la 5.5G) is an iPod with video capabilities, but as the rumor sites have been spouting for months now, the "True Video iPod" is still coming around the corner. Battery life, I believe was one of the major issues with it, and I'm sure some of the improvements that have gone into that found the way into the 5.5G. There will be a bigger screen, it was in the works long before the Zune nonsense was a rumor.
That's great! It's too bad the Zune isn't using wireless for syncing, or for wireless music shopping. It's only for sharing music between Zunes. Good luck with that one.
Zune? No, new product vs iPod identity (Score:2, Informative)
There's more to it than that. Part of it is consumer needs, but part of it is consumer desires. Apple has succeeded in creating an identity for and making the iPod desirable, even if some people that use it (of whom I know a few) don't understand what it does at all. At its core, what is it? A screen and a hard drive with a rom chip that knows how to play music files stored on the hard drive.
Do you remember when the walkman first came out? Do you realize that most people now call any portable tape player (Panasonic, Sharp, Pioneer, whatever...) a Walkman even though it's the Sony brand? Sony did a remarkable job of taking a bunch of parts of a dictaphone and putting them together to create something ubiquitous. The also completely created the market for it from scratch. They packaged it in so many different forms that it became desirable to everyone. To see what I mean, check out this book [amazon.ca]. It's short but it's a really good history of a game-changing product, even if it was 'just a tape-player'.
Apple has their iPod, which is just an mp3 player. That's it (at it's core, forgive the pun there). What they have done though, is take a mp3 player (nerdy gadget) and make it desirable to the masses as an accessory, just like Sony did with the Walkman. They're even updating it like Sony did, small changes with the same base. How much different was the last walkman from the first one, really? And apple is getting flack for minor updates to a successful product. Anyways, it will be interesting to see what Zune does. Is Microsoft going to take a bite out of the market that Apple created or will gaining adoption be difficult or will it fail to create its own identity and become a Microsoft iPod (like a Panasonic Walkman)? Too many bells and whistles can take buyers away if they only really want one thing: play their music. Same problem applies to most technology. So much technology is returned because users just plain can't figure it out. [computerworld.com]
In the end I don't think it's so much about Microsoft trying to crush competition as about Microsoft trying to add a product to a successful market. It's not up to MS whether it will succeed though, in this case it will actually turn out to be a cultural decision!! (read the book, hehe).
Re:Limited playback (Score:4, Informative)
This is completely false. The author is confusing the iPod market share statistic for hard-drive based players--which is still 90% --and the statistic for all total portable music players, which is 70%. The precise history of the iPod's total market share is 31% in 2004, 65% in 2005, and 74% in 2006. The market was once dominated by flash players, but that was eradicated by the iPod mini. Contrary to the article's claim, the iPod has not lost any market share.
These have absolutely nothing to do with each other. It doesn't matter that Microsoft owns more than 90% of the worldwide operating systems market. That hasn't stopped the iPod in the last five years, despite a long series of "PlaysForSure" devices.
The Zune has the same resolution as the iPod (the Zune's screen is a stretched 320x240), it's bulkier than the iPod, and its clickwheel isn't a clickwheel, so you have to use simple directional push-and-hold buttons to go through your 1,000+ music list.
This is the latest "iPod killer" article that will be forgotten in a month. How many of these "killers" are we going to hear about before people wise up? Come on, one of the reasons listed in the article is "Zune is actually pretty cool." It's a fluff piece mixed with subjective op-ed from the author.
Re:Out Of Business (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Zune? Puh-leeze. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Antitrust ? (Score:2, Informative)
Says who?
The Sherman Anti-trust act of 1890 in the US.
Have they been indicted or sued by the Justice Department for bundling Windows Media Player yet?
Nope. They were convicted of it in the EU though, which has nearly identical antitrust laws.
If not, when do you expect that to happen?
Just as soon as we elect a president for whom MS is not one of the largest contributors for their election campaign, i.e. not Republican or Democrat.
They also bundle Internet Explorer and WordPad. Are they illegal too?
MS was convicted of illegal tying for IE, but their punishment was negligible, as all the people in charge of the case were replaced right after Bush was elected and the new justice department officials though "nothing" was an appropriate punishment for someone who gave them so much money in bribes, err I mean, legal lobbying funds.
Wordpad does not compete in an existing, market and as such is probably not a violation of anti-trust law.
Re:Zune? Puh-leeze. (Score:3, Informative)
Exactly. I remember a study that was done about music players a while back, and in terms of functionality (ie, not "style"), it found that basically only three things mattered to people: physical size, capacity, and battery life. Take a look at what Apple is advertising on the iPod Nano page [apple.com] and iPod page [apple.com]. I can't even find a real Microsoft home page for the Zune, the closest thing I can find is this press release [microsoft.com], which doesn't even mention either physical size or battery life.
Re:Antitrust ? (Score:4, Informative)
Leveraging a monopoly to gain market share in another market is illegal. In this case, MS has bundled their software music player with Windows, which is illegal in and of itself.
Not at all. You're probably confused with the Netscape case - but there, they strongarmed OEMs to *not* include Netscape. That's the "leverage" part. Simply competing in multiple markets, when you have a monopoly in one, is absolutely not illegal. It's not illegal for those products to work well together to the point that they make a compelling combination either. That's fair competition, doing something better than someone else.
Now, if they start forcing OEMs to include their player and not iTunes (as if any OEMs included iTunes now), that would be illegal. Hacking windows to make iTunes and iPods incompatible would be illegal. Making music software is *not* illegal, nor is including it in Windows free of charge.
If their hardware and software players play it and that ability is not offered to all other software player and hardware player manufacturers, free of charge, then that too is illegal.
No, it's not, especially since MS won't have a monopoly in music players.
Re:Nothing new here, mostly the old FUD and some i (Score:3, Informative)
The connection is clean so I lose no fidelity, (either video or audio). The dock itself is tiny and sits out of the way on top of the entertainment center.
Re:Social, but not viral (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Expert opinion from Mike Elgan (Score:2, Informative)
You *should* "wait for a neutral review from a expert who reports on the players from all manufacturers."
My article is perfectly useless for choosing which media player to buy. Personally, I'm an iPod *freak* (my family of four owns six iPods).
The purpose of my column was to point out a colossal disconnect between Apple on the one hand, and the Apple faithful on the other. I have noticed my fellow iPod enthusiasts "pointing and laughing," as I put it, at Microsoft's entry into the media player market. The conventional wisdom is that Microsoft hasn't a prayer.
My article points out that Apple itself isn't laughing. Zune is a serious threat to Apple's profitability, media player market share and "aura" of invincibility. Microsoft isn't just another wannabe. They're deadly serious and are betting the company on their consumer media strategy, which includes the Zune.
I never said Zune is better than iPod. I said Apple is scared of what the Zune (and the rest of Microsoft's consumer product line) will do to their business.
Mike