Comments on: The Only Thing Gettin’ Killed By iPod-killer Zune is Microsoft

By: Rogre

Rogre — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 14:41:50 +0000

There is 20% of the player market available if MS just eats it’s own. That is 20% in a growing market. MS will buy thier way in so they can do the whole home entertainment thing; They have to get into this because the traditional PC market will be declining over time.

If what I have read is correct, WMA won’t even be used for Zune. I guess that MS had to avoid Monopoly issues and went outside the Plays for Sure and Windows media player.

I agree with Jon on Zune being a pretty good name. I do not think Zune will fail to wipe out the current Windows partners. Denting the ipod will be another story. I’m guessing MS is mostly wanting to really be in the media game more than they are aiming at the iPod, in the short term.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 03:00:38 +0000

I have to play devil’s advocate here and admit I kinda of like the whole Zune name/image/logo. What does Zune mean? Sounds like “zoom” and “tune” to make for “tunes on the go.” Aside from the name/logo, I don’t have much faith that this product will do well, except among the anti-Apple set…the ones determined to NOT buy an iPod. I don’t think there’s too many of those left, but enough to sell a good number of these.

On the other hand, they have some serious catching up to do. Considering over 150 TV shows are now available on iTunes and this new “none-touch” iPod technology (forget how retarded it sounds) Apple’s got going, I’d say MS will lose this battle, at least in the short term.

By: jbelkin

jbelkin — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 19:18:32 +0000

As for the Xbox “success,” even if you discount the staggering amount of money MS has thrown at it (spending $400 to sell each Xbox – $10 billion spent, 25 million xboxes sold) – the Xbox is really just a flat PC where you don’t have to deal with spyware and incompatbile drivers and less patches to worry about versus the hassles of regular PC games plus you don’t have to spend 4 hors fixing your machine after plugging in a new joystick … beyond PC gamers who switched, who is MS really bringing to that table?

The Zune will fail.

By: Sven Rafferty

Sven Rafferty — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 18:09:14 +0000

Jeff, great observation! Man, you got me doing the big LOL.

Thank you, Jack, for the clarification on the first PMP. I had forgotten about that one.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:46:58 +0000

Actually, the Diamond Rio wasn’t the first digital music player. It was, arguably, the first “well marketed” digital music player (hey, it was the first to be sued by the RIAA!!) I owned one and actually saw another person on the train with one. But, it wasn’t the first.

The very first digital music player available was from a Korean company. It was the MPMan from Saehan. Saehan released a version in the U.S. a few months prior to the Rio called Eiger Labs MPMan F10/F20.

I still have fond memories of my Diamond Rio PMP300. I think I had a sweet 96MB of space with my additional 64MB Smart Media card…

By: Jeff (Switcher since 10/2004)

Jeff (Switcher since 10/2004) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:05:56 +0000

Is that guy petting the bunny a characterization of Steve Ballmer?

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:38:36 +0000

I started the web site. Do they really believe people are going to listen to some drawing of a kid singing some song? Did I really want to watch a pencil man petting a pencil bunny? If I didn’t read this post, I wouldn’t know what Zune is, and based on the website, I’d know that I wouldn’t want it. Very bad.