Title: Microsoft's Zune Vs. Apple's Ipod
Drake - July 31, 2006 04:00 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| There has been a lot of buzz over the last week or two since Microsoft officially announced their Zune project. Although a surprising amount of details had already been released onto Engadget and Gizmodo, once it became official, the press jumped all over it, announcing everything from the iPod's impending doom, to Microsoft's impending doom. But lets sweep aside some of the hype for a moment and explore just how Zune might work and how it might take on the iPod. (Warning: All this is pure speculation based on the information already available. I have no inside information or access to super secret rumours. And I could be completely wrong. But, it's an interesting idea, so please keep reading!) Microsoft knows that it can not compete with Apple on terms of a straight music player. The iPod is just too entrenched in peoples minds. The only way they can win is by moving the goalposts, by targeting the Zune, not just as a music player but as an entirely new class of device, just as apple did with the iPod. From the information that has been “leaked” onto the web, It seems like much of what makes zune different will be it's wireless and social networking. At E3 earlier in the year microsoft showed off it's live anywhere platform and expect Zune to take full advantage of that. The way I imagine it, Zune won't just be a device, it will also be a service and possibly, the device will require that service to get full advantage of it. For some time now, Microsoft has been pushing the subscription model for selling music online, but up till now this hasn't worked particurlarly well, because no portable device has integrated with a subscription music service as effectively as the iPod and iTunes. Microsoft seem to have realised that and possibly feel that if they build a player from the ground up with subscription service in mind it might just work. With Apple, the iPod drives profits and the music store is there to drive sales of the iPod. Microsoft is likely to take the exact opposite approach to Apple when it comes to Zune. If microsoft adopts a subscription based sales model, the Zune player will serve to draw people to the service. Microsoft will hope to make it's money (eventually) by subscribers to it's service without which, the device will be seriously limited. I suspect many of the proposed features won't work without a subscription to the Zune service, which will be more than just about music. It's a business model not too dissimilar from mobile phone manufacturers and operators, where expensive phones are often subsidiesed to draw users onto a particular mobile service plan. Think about it, with a subscription service and wireless device, you could in theory have access to the entire music catalogue wherever you are, so long as you're in a wifi zone, of which there are more and more cropping up all the time. Much has been made to of Zune's proposed music sharing plans. (the idea being that you can share your music wirelessly with another Zune) Well, this would be easy with a subscription service. The player detects what's on a nearby player and streams it while the other Zune is nearby, then downloads the music later when connected to the net. Because you're already subscribed and paying for it, there's no issue with piracy. This is the one advantage subscription services have over the song purchase model. It could also explain how the supposed iTunes buy back would work. The idea being floated is that the Zune software will scan your itunes library for purchased songs and Microsoft will give you those songs from their service. If it was a purchase only service, this would be insanely expensive, and probably illegal. With a music subscription this wouldn't be that big a deal because you're already paying for the music anyway. I would also expect the service to offer additional content too, both free and paid, like trailers etc. If you've ever seen or used xbox like, I'm guessing that it will work pretty much like that. The xbox live service offers some movie trailers, game demos, wallpapers and a chat service all through the xbox interface. To download premium content you can buy “microsoft points” through their website, this way you don't have to enter your credit card and personal details repeatedly on a device with no keyboard input. I would imagine the Zune to work along similar lines. But more than just downloads, the Zune service will be about community, and social networking. From Bobbie Bach, (President of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Devision): “When you go to any music site today, what do you do? Well, today, you can buy music, but it's hard to meet your friends there, it's hard to share music there, hard to share music experiences there, hard to find out information about your favorite bands, and what they're doing, and where their next concert is, and how you can get there. ” From some of the other comments from Robbie “Figuring out new ways for people to find their favorite music, certainly, but in some ways more importantly their favorite video. Video now is not just a list of things that are produced by Hollywood, it's video that's produced by individuals around the world. It's family videos. It's friends' videos. It's funny community videos. It's user-created content.,” It sounds like they are going after YouTube as well. Of course, all this sounds pretty fanciful, but none of that guarantees success. For a start consumers have shown again and again that with music players, they prefer simplicity over feature bloat, a concept Microsoft has never seemed to grasp. And there's a lot of complexity in some of the features that have been talked about. How are they going, for example make it easy to work in public wifi zones that require authentication and payment. Also, Microsoft have said themselves that they expect Zune to take four or five years to be a success, and in that time Apple can quickly respond to anything Microsoft can offer. The iPod engineering is pretty far along at this stage and the iconic player is pretty entrenched in everyone's psyche. That's not going to change over night. The problem from Apple's point of view, is that despite their innovation and thinking different, they still run the company like a traditional buisness, in that they sell products for a profit. Microsoft on the other had doesn't care about making a profit with Zune, they just want to own the market. And they're willing to loose millions of dollars to do so. It will be an interesting fight, and it's certainly too early to predict who will come out on top, but in the end fair competition is good for consumers. Unfortunately for consumers, Microsoft's track record when it comes to fair competition has been anything but good. |
I'm way in! Unless it comes out something more than mp3, mp4, video .. else it is too late already. But better late that never and I love having options therefore I could very well be way into this !
BrotherEstapol - July 31, 2006 06:16 AM (GMT)
Go Mircosoft!!! :P
Random Hero - July 31, 2006 06:25 AM (GMT)
i dont really like the look of it..... isnt apple coming out with a widescreen touch one soon anyway??
Jiro - August 11, 2006 02:27 AM (GMT)
somehting i feel that the ipod lacks is a radio. if the zune had a radio that would be good. and all those little peripherals built into it like a radio tuner and that stuff, not having to waste money on it.
g1ggy - August 14, 2006 10:11 PM (GMT)
yeah, most Mp3 players come with radios, Apple's a bit behind
_MetalliX_ - November 9, 2006 03:26 AM (GMT)
I have just discovered that the Zune has what is possibly the best feature ever on any mp3 player -- it can transfer songs from one player to another. I'm not sure how this would work in respect to copyright laws, but the idea of having your friend send you a cool song you don't have is great!
Video of a transfer here
Video of a transfer here
Robert - November 9, 2006 06:07 AM (GMT)
santeria - November 15, 2006 09:31 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (_MetalliX_ @ Nov 9 2006, 01:26 PM) |
| I have just discovered that the Zune has what is possibly the best feature ever on any mp3 player -- it can transfer songs from one player to another. I'm not sure how this would work in respect to copyright laws, but the idea of having your friend send you a cool song you don't have is great! Video of a transfer here |
yeah looks good! with the transfer thing though, if you pause the screen at the end it says ' you can play this song 3 times in three days'. No doubt someone will get around this but....