Everything Microsoft did wrong with the Zune
When I first heard about the Zune, I was really interested. It's a great looking player that promised a lot of features and I was especially interested in the WiFi capability.
I'm glad I didn't rush out and buy one though, because after hearing what Leo Laporte has to say about the Zune, I have to admit that I agree with most of what he says. Zune is a nice piece of technology, and props go out to the hardware guys that designed it (and a bit to the software guys that almost managed to make all the software work). It's clear the problems with the Zune are the same problems that plague every other Microsoft product: the business guys.
First of all, the marketing stinks. "Welcome to the Social" is a terrible slogan, and it's clear that Microsoft is trying to create a status symbol to compete with the iPod. The Zune is meant to be the "new black" and in design alone it could be… but come to think of it, the iPod doesn't have a marketing slogan. While the iPod has had a very aggressive marketing campaign with hot product images and dancing celebrities, it's a solid marketing campaign that does two things: it showcases the product and conveys the experience of using it. Microsoft's "Welcome to the Social" campaign fails to do either of those things; it's a good example of how not to market your product.
Second, the WiFi capability is totally wasted. It isn't used to connect to computers or browse the web, things even my Nintendo DS can do. It's only for sharing songs with other Zunes, and even then, whoever receives a song from you can only play it 3 times in a span of 3 days, after that which it is gone. I don't think it's such a bad idea, but there's a lot of things wrong with it. It doesn't work with songs that are license-free, which means that even if a song that I have is meant to be freely shared, any person I send it to can't keep it. It doesn't allow you to give songs away, as in I have a song on my Zune that I give to someone else and I no longer have that song. It would be a nice way to "gift" songs to a friend or get rid of songs I no longer want, or even trade songs with others, and it would be great since there would still be only one copy of each song going around, something that makes legal sense, but the feature isn't there. And considering that there is nothing more that can be done with the WiFi capability, I can only imagine that the majority of Zune users aren't benefiting from WiFi at all. It is possible that the WiFi capability will be expanded in the future, and all I can say is, "hurry up and expand it, morons!"
Third, Microsoft is trying way too hard to make record companies happy. When I heard that Microsoft is paying $1 to Universal for every Zune purchase, I was disappointed. Medialoper has a pretty good entry on it. The idea is that since the Zune might be used for pirating music, Universal wants $1 from the sale of each Zune to compensate in advance. It's called a "sin tax" and apparently more deals will probably be made with other record companies. Now I know this exists with many other products such as blank CD's and DVD's, but this is the first time such a tax has been paid for an audio player, and Microsoft is setting a precedent for record companies to expect the same from other audio device manufacturers. It's also just wrong; not every Zune user is pirating music, and there's nothing about the sin tax that protects users who pirate music from being sued. In the end, it doesn't benefit consumers at all, and for the consumer that's spending $250 for a unit, it doesn't make sense.
Interestingly enough, the Zune is not a single product… Microsoft has plans in the works to maintain the Zune as a platform that will include phones, gaming devices, and more, according to Zune Scene. It sounds like Microsoft is looking to be the next Sony, expanding into every product market that exists in electronics while failing to lead any single one of those markets. Are we going to see a Zune phone that fails to compete with any of the top phones offered by Samsung and Motorola and LG? A Zune game device that fails to compete with the next gen Nintendo and Sony offerings? It would be one thing if Microsoft was very successful at designing new products and breaking into new markets, but that hasn't been the case, and it's only a matter of time before their new offerings turn into losses and they have to start cutting back and cleaning up their costly business decisions. When that time comes, the Windows line will still be full of problems and I'll wonder just what Microsoft was trying to accomplish.
In the end, the Zune is not a bad product altogether but I'm perfectly happy with my iRiver H10.
Well, Microsoft's days are numbered. They have a second-rate OS, a second-rate media player, a second-rate audio device and a second-rate DIAL-UP ISP. The only thing they have going for them is Microsoft Office and with the growth of OpenOffice, that's numbered too.