Impressions of Zune
Firstly, a disclaimer: I have not actually used a Zune. The remarks that follow are based entirely on information that I have read. I own an iPod, my second in fact. I’m using my third mac - I’m a longtime user and fan of Apple products, since before the good times they’re currently enjoying. I remember when any mention of Apple in the press carried the prefix “beleagured”, an adjective that currently seems to belong to Sony.
However, I’m no fool. I’m not closed to the idea of buying a rival product, if I’m satisfied that product is better. That in mind, I’ll list the pros and cons of the Zune, as I see them.
Pros
- All competition is healthy, and Apple are practically unchallenged right now. Creative are a joke, and Sony’s attempts to revitalise the Walkman brand have been unsuccessful so far.
- Good size screen with nice, bright graphics.
- The sound quality is at least as good as any iPod.
- The wifi feature is interesting - I expect it will prove a hit with schoolkids.
- Xbox 360 integration will boost both products.
Cons
- Microsoft’s David Vs Goliath stance is the most hilarious piece of marketing bullshit I’ve probably ever heard. iPod, like Xbox 360 (which I’ll get to later), is a *good product* which is doing well on its merits. That’s Microsoft for you, ever the champion of free competition and consumer choice. Nobody needs a good product to be “killed”, except its competitors.
- It’s rather big and, it has to be said, ugly.
- Brown?!?
- The faux clickwheel is a disastrous idea. They should have either licensed the patent to build in a proper clickwheel, or come up with an alternative. As it is, it screams “cheap knock-off”.
- It’s well known that Zune is little more than a rebadged Toshiba Gigbeat, which itself was based on an earlier PDA. So, third time lucky then?
- Zune doesn’t work with Windows Vista (yet) because of the release schedule.
- The wifi and radio will slaughter the battery life.
- The usage restrictions on wifi sharing (three plays over three days) are so draconian as to be almost useless. It doesn’t even allow you to share music you’ve created yourself. If they can come up with a way to allow that much at least, it could prove a fantastic way to build grass-roots awareness of unsigned artists.
- The Zune application represents a total reversal of attitude. Having poured scorn on iPod and the Music Store for being a “closed system”, Microsoft have come up with their own. Not only that, but they’ve stabbed in the back all their PlaysForSure partners and customers to do so. Y’know, this is big business, and shit happens, and arguably it was necessary to build a better product. Still. Naughty.
- They’ve grabbed their ankles for the recording industry fat cats, who believe that all iPod users are thieves. Thank you Mr Doug Morris (CEO of Universal), but I buy my music. You utter wanker.
- They’ve picked a bizarre time of year to launch a middle high-end music player, when the market is obviously for mid-range and low-end products (like the iPod Nano and Shuffle) to be bought as gifts. They’ve effectivly handed Christmas 2006 to Apple on a plate.
So, that probably looks like a bit of a hatchet job, right? Almost. I see the Zune in much the same way as I saw the original Xbox when it launched: a poorly executed but generally solid first attempt that will do fairly well in America, but will go pretty much unnoticed in Europe and will be laughed at in Japan.
It will establish a certain but distant second place in the market, and pave the way for its better designed successor (much like the Xbox 360 did) to make further progress. Microsoft have talented people and they have very deep pockets. They can afford to take the time to get it right. Eventually they will, and I’ll consider a third generation Zune seriously before I buy another iPod.
Recent Posts RSS
November 17th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
[ EDITED - to abbreviated links that were stuffing up the column
]
So who’s opinions are they then?
It isn’t like Balmer was indicating MS were hard done to, merely that Apple clearly dominate the market. That’s not up for debate, so why’s this fool claiming it is ‘marketing bullshit’ ? No competitor comes close in the mp3 player market. And if we’re talking about killing a product, best be sure the media coverage on Apple doesn’t do it too [link], lest one looks like a hypocrit trying to push the anti-microsoft angle over, say, the facts.
Rebaged Gigabeat? Well given the Gigabeat’s reviews that’s not a bad idea. However claiming that’s all it is, is rather silly. Microsoft have had full control over the design and once again, if this fool is going to make claims against the Zune, might help if they weren’t true for the iPod, Apple hardly make iPods from scratch either and Toshiba are yet to have all the ’sweatshop’ allegations of iPod manufacturer Foxconn [link]. You know you’re in shit when Microsoft hold the moral high ground.
Brown? Sure, nasty. But giving Zune owners 50% more choice when it comes to chosing a color over an iPod. Besides, I’m sure some folk like brown… demented fools.
“The Zune application represents a total reversal of attitude”
Unlike Apple. Who wouldn’t be so silly as to vow to never enter the music business…
On multiple seperate occasions…
In high profile court cases…
…
Oh wait.
“The wifi and radio will slaughter the battery life.”
A radio draws very little power, s’why you have tiny radios that run off watch batteries. Even some of the most economical hard drives draw many times more than a radio ever will. Sure, ok so a WiFi connection tends to draw around 10W, but you can *gasp* TURN IT OFF.
Yeah that radio is going to ’slaughter’ the battery life, I mean what with that LCD screens and HDDs drawing next to nothing like they do…
The Launch date… hmm, didn’t Apple release both the iPod and iPod video in mid-late October? only 3-4 weeks from Microsoft’s launch, yeah they really missed the window. iPod sales doubled for the quarter that included the Christmas period over the previous quarter, not all of them were Nanos, so clearly there *is* a market for mid to high end players as presents.
“They’ve grabbed their ankles for the recording industry fat cats”
Astute grasp of the situation, not like MS were forced into it or that all the record companies are still smarting from missing the iPod boat and so are taking Apple’s reluctance to play ball out on other companies. It is also around the same price yet paying some of that to the (ok, A) record label. It doesn’t affect the consumer, but gives 50c a unit more to the artists. How’s that a BAD thing? Doesn’t that just highlight that Apple are more concerned with profits?
This person’s clear bias not withstanding, the Zune is not without faults, why the f**k they didn’t license Toshiba’s awesome touch sensitive cross is beyond me, as is why they’re marketing what is essentially ‘a knock off ipod’ at the same price. Make it cheaper for heaven’s sake, shift more units, which can then translate into more revenue for the download service.
I sure as hell won’t be buying one, but that’s because I thought my 50GBP (damned american keyboard with no sterling sign) 1.5gb player was an extravagance and I barely use it.
I can’t see it shifting any considerable number of units, not with WiFi spots being so intermitent. However, I do like the idea of listening to music, wanting to hear a song and just downloading it there and then rather than having to run to connect it to a PC. I don’t think that’s enough of a feature to challenge Apple though.
November 17th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
oh I misread, they are yours. Ok ignore the ‘fool’ bits then
November 17th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Sweet, moderated… delete the lot then.
November 17th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
I turned on moderation, because I was starting to get a bit of spam.
1) Oh please. Balmer is probably the most hideous little toad in the whole industry. Bill Gates is James Bond compared to him.
2) If the Gigabeat didn’t make a dent before, I don’t have high hopes for it now.
3) Yeah that Foxconn business is dodgy looking - I’ve been watching that. Obviously there’s no condoning those kind of conditions, if they do turn out to in fact exist.
4) 50% more choice? So, if I was to say you can have a cake, or an ice cream, then offered you some dogshit, would that be 50% more choice?
5) If the wifi effect is anything like it has on most laptops I’ve encountered, the battery drain will be noticeable. Just like video playback on an iPod, which for the most part I think is a waste of time.
6) Apple were slippery on the music business one, granted. They’re not in the music business, is their argument. They have a music shop. Semantics… no wonder the case has dragged out so long.
7) The point about product offerings was that the new nano and the ipod video were updates to existing products, not entirely new ones. MS have nothing in that range, which makes it a curious time of year to launch.
9) The Music Store is well known to be run at pretty much break-even because Apple’s money is made on iPod sales. They’ve pissed of industry execs so far be refusing to raise prices.
10) Wifi spots intermittent? I was assuming it was peer-to-peer and would work anywhere. Isn’t that the case?
The remarks were my own, based on information that’s all over the web on any site that comments on the subject. You seem to have carefully missed my point that it will no doubt turn into a decent product in a couple of revisions’ time.
November 17th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
1) no argument there, but Balmer’s loathsome fuckwittery and unpleasantness don’t make that comment ‘bullshit’.
2) True and the Zune will probably make exactly as much impact, but again, that’s not the point made which is that the Zune’s just a Toshiba rebrand. The iPod’s a Foxconn rebrand.
3)Shit sticks though in this world of spin and PR. Even if it isn’t true, it hurts.
4) Of course it is. Offering more choice, however unpopular that choice is, can’t be anything *but* offering more choice. Is it only counted as ‘more choice’ if it reaches an as yet unevaluated level of popularity? Sorry Heinz, you only make 37 varieties, the other 20 just aren’t popular enough to count.
5) Oh sure, but level the argument at Laptops, PSPs, Palms, etc… Hell why stop at WiFi, go back to monochrome screens, they consume less power. Sure, there’s a trade off, the important thing is that you have the option to turn it off, if you don’t want to use it and don’t want to waste battery power on it.
6) Well they can argue it all they want. Music retailer smells like music industry and especially when they start doing deals with the likes of U2 to distribute (and promote) their album… that’s a very blurred line. A complete U-turn and understably given how much $$ they rake in, but still showing anything levelled at Microsoft can be aimed at their better marketed cousins.
7) the original iPod wasn’t though. Again, released in October. Apple marketed all their iPods to take advantage of the Christmas period, showing that this is the BEST time to market a high end MP3 player.
9) Apple is reputed to pay a rough average of 65 cent wholesale rate for tracks, meaning their take is about 34c. That’s 2-3 times that of Yahoo (http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=27407). Now, factor in the fact that reductions of scale mean that iTunes should actually be able to offer tracks for LESS of a margin and I highly doubt their ‘barely breaking even’ is close to the mark.
10) Oh sure, but who the hell approaches random strangers for their tracks. I’d heard of iPod parties in clubs where folk take their iPods and play a track or two from each person’s playlist.. in those scenarios, that might work.
However, I think the much more likely scenario is you out and about, playing your Zune while at a bus stop/train station/airport, wanting a track and connecting to a hot spot to download it. I don’t think either scenario, though, is one many people will find themselves in.
I did catch the comment, I’m just even more pesimistic than you… I just can’t see it (or any other player) being anything other than an ‘iPod-wannabe’, such is the extent of the saturation of the player into pop culture.
November 18th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
1) It’s true, but I have an instinctive tendency to disregard anything that comes out of that sweaty ape’s mouth. I particularly enjoyed his recent comments that MS could have cause to sue Linux users for trademark infringements that he didn’t bother to specify.
2) I think the re-branding point is dependent on how you define the term. Releasing a modified version of an existing product, and designing a product of which you outsource the manufacturing are arguably not the same thing.
3) I’m not suggesting that a device shouldn’t push technological boundaries, but just as the Game Gear and Atari Lynx discovered to their cost and iPod was criticised, if the device is perceived to have poor battery life it will be a problem. If the wifi is turned off by default, then the the issue goes away for most people…
4) Apple have been taking the piss out of Apple Corp for years, see the original system alert sound called “Sosume” (”So sue me”). It’s all a bit childish on both sides really, I don’t think there’s anyone daft enough to think Apple are a record label, or that Apple Corp make the iPod…
5) Well, the original iPod launch was greeted with a general “WTF?!?” by the industry. You might argue that that release date choice was odd… My point was that maybe MS would have made more impact if the Zune was a Nano rival in the first instance. The Nano is after all the best selling iPod…
6) I said “break even”, not “barely breaking even”, you’re over-dramatising my words. iTMS exists to support the iPod.
7) There’s a bar in Chorlton that’s been known to do iPod nights…
9) All MS have to do is release a better product, or one that appeals to a different audience. The problem I have with the Zune at the moment, is that it’s far too similar but just not good enough. I’m reminded of a magazine I read back in the Super NES days, that got so tired of reviewing Street Fighter 2 wannabes that they ended up just summing games up as “NAGASF2″ (”Not As Good As Streetfighter 2″). Zune = NAGAiP.
February 10th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
“I’m reminded of a magazine I read back in the Super NES days, that got so tired of reviewing Street Fighter 2 wannabes that they ended up just summing games up as “NAGASF2″ (”Not As Good As Streetfighter 2″).”
Super Play.
February 10th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Indeed! One of my favourite magazines ever, for what I could argue was the best console ever.