Engadget has conducted an interview with J Allard, Microsoft Corporate Vice President about Microsoft’s Zune, digital media, and the direction Microsoft is taking.
Allard: We actually really think about Zune more as a platform than a device… The world is gaga about iPods, but everybody in the world listens to music, not just 50 million people that have iPods.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple has shipped 60+ million iPods as of the end of June 2006. There are over 3,000 iPod accessories. Apple has 75.6% market share in the U.S. 70% of 2007 US vehicles in the U.S. feature iPod-connectivity.
Allard: …People just a want a system that’s end-to-end — all compatible out of the gate — and that’s what Zune does. Zune says there is no choice; you get a Zune device, you hook it up to the Zune service, and it just works.
On Tuesday, January 13, 2004, Macworld UK reported, “General manager of Microsoft’s Windows digital media division David Fester has suggested that iTunes’ emerging dominance would be bad for consumers, because it would limit them to the iPod… He told journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: ‘Windows is about choice – you can mix and match software and music player stuff. We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services…
MacDailyNews Take: First, Microsoft was all about “choice,” but they really, really didn’t like the choice consumers made: Apple’s iPod+iTunes+iTunes Store. So, now, Microsoft is all about “no choice” with Zune? According to Microsoft’s Allard, “PlaysForSure” will continue for those that want “choice” and Zune is for those that want “no choice.” In today’s full Engadget interview, Allard says, “So they’re two complementary solutions — not everyone’s gonna want Zune and not everyone’s gonna want PlaysForSure.” Finally, one statement from a Microsoft exec that’s for damn sure.*
*For our readers in Redmond: Not everyone’s gonna want Zune and not everyone’s gonna want PlaysForSure. They’ll want neither.
Related articles:
Microsoft unhappy with HP, Apple music pact; says deal will ‘limit choice’ – January 13, 2004
Analyst: Microsoft Zune with fake scroll wheel ‘hardly an Apple iPod killer’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune won’t spoil Apple’s biggest iPod Christmas ever – September 14, 2006
Microsoft unveils Zune 30GB player, Zune Marketplace; declines to disclose prices – September 14, 2006
Microsoft sees room in music player market for ‘Zune’ to challenge Apple’s dominant iPod – September 06, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft’s Zune an ‘underwhelming’ repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat; no threat to Apple iPod – August 30, 2006
Microsoft confirms brick-like Zune to be made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft Zune is chunky brick made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft to spend hundreds of millions, several years on Zune trying to catch Apple iPod+iTunes – July 27, 2006
Zune: Apple cannot lose. Microsoft cannot win. – July 26, 2006
Zuny… I mean Zany.
How can a company tout “Look, we have no choice!”
??
“How can a company tout “Look, we have no choice!” “
because they have no choice!! ha ha
I can’t wait to see the sweaty monkey boy on stage demoing the zune.
here is a big problem. whatever MS makes even Zune, it can’t be compatible with mac like itunes, ipod for PC. so comparison of occupied number of ipod makret, music, they made huge mistake.
“… and it just works.”
You made the Xbox work, but you didn’t have to deal with WMP, what is sure to be an unwieldly music store, and WM-DRM.
Allard misspoke. He said “Not everyone is gonna want Zune.” He misplaced the first 3 words of his sentence. He should have said “Everyone is not gonna want Zune.”
if by xbox working you mean they haven’t turned $1 of profit, then yeah, it worked great.
Microsoft’s chief buffoons
Designed devices to play all your tunes
What they did about it
Was to take a piece of shit
From Toshiba and brand it The Zune
MS says you have a choice as long as it’s only Microsoft Windows.
I’ve no problems with MS bringing out a Zune soon.
SJ unvieled nothing new on the iPod front earlier this week and at least one serious challange ( based on Corporate muscle if not tech) will hopefully encourage Apple to release a 6G iPod rather than sit back and milk sales from 5G – which is not much different from previous generations.
Even Zune is going to have a bigger screen than 5G.
Max –
Bigger only in real estate it takes up. Its stil a 320×240 resolution screen.
If the statistic that 19% of college students’ computers are Macs is true, now is not a good time to release a Windows-only service. College-age folks are a good indication of where the market is going in the future.
If Microsoft is serious about protected WMA and Zune, they are eventually going to have to break down and make it work on a Mac. I truly believe that Windows marketshare has peaked, and that it will slide glacially downhill from here. When Microsoft stops tying all their formats to their OS, we’ll know they believe it as well.
I guess if you own a Mac you don’t fit into Allard’s term “everyone”. NO mention of Mac users. I guess we don’t exist or count as people to Microsoft.
They deserve a seat in George W. Bush Cabinet.
The MS uninformed majority will believe this shit. The ignorance in this day and age is unbelievable. There are millions of people out there that know no better.
I just talked to one on Skype. He said his PC is near its death and I suggested an iMac. He is an intelligent man , but just uninformed. By the end of my speech he was ready to at least look at a Mac for his kids. One more to the fold. Soon?
Leo
Apple has released QuickTime & iTunes software that support MS Windows and the iPod, which covers probably 98+% of the consumer computers in the developed world. Microsoft has chosen not only to not support it’s Janus DRM on the Mac, it has now dropped any pretension of supporting Windoze Media on the Mac. It’s not that they can’t they have chosen not to.
reciprocate |riˈsiprəˌkāt| verb 1 [ trans. ] respond to (a gesture or action) by making a corresponding one : the favor was reciprocated | [ intrans. ] perhaps I was expected to reciprocate with some remark of my own. • experience the same (love, liking, or affection) for someone as that person does for oneself : her passion for him was not reciprocated.
2 [ intrans. ] [usu. as adj. ] ( reciprocating) (of a part of a machine) move backward and forward in a straight line : a reciprocating blade.
I’m going to call bullsh*t on Microsoft’s FUD about choice
C’mon fanboys, deny that any of this is true.
I like the way this is working. Microsoft if selling the Zune for Windows only, and they are working on the Xbox. They are ignoring Windows, and trying to fight Apple on the iPod. This will fail, but while Microsoft is attacking Apple, Apple is taking Microsoft’s only profit from them. The Zune will fail because more people will buy Mac’s which means more people can’t use a Zune. So Apple will gain market share in computers by a lot, and retain the lead in iPods.
I love the way they run Microsoft. And I love the way Apple is run. Both bring a smile to my face. Apple’s stock and market share are going to grow very quickly. Get ready for this ride up.
“MS says you have a choice as long as it’s only Microsoft Windows.”
I have coined this as the MMC™: The Microsoft Myth of Choice.
Any PC. Only one OS.
The Zune is gonna be like the Xbox 360, so its just going to to work…Awesome! I love how the 360 works…well, 3/4 of them. I want a player that every quarter of them sold are defective and have to be returned to MS and you have to pay for shipping and customer service!
“What can brown do for you?” Nothing!
Shadowy Zune: Hello all Zunies! I got a free vir…I mean WMA song you’ve got to listen to! Free! Just pick one up right here!
Buff Frat-Boy Zune: Whoa, dude! Free song! I can dig that.
Perky Naive Zune: Don’t listen to him! The song doesn’t sound like anything!
Shadowy Zune: It’s free! Won’t hurt to try!
Buff Frat-Boy Zune: Yeah! Let me see that song here.
Perky Naive Zune: You’re gonna regr….zzppt…pop…fzzzt!
(Perky Naive Zune suddenly falls dead, the nefarious viru…I mean, WMA song corrupting her functions.)
Shadowy Zune: Don’t mind her! Bad battery!
Buff Frat-Boy Zune: Hey, she was right! This song doesn’t sound like any…..bzzzz…..bffffzzz!
Shadowy Zune: Get your free vir…I mean, free songs right here!
iPod is the “platform.” You can’t have a platform with a device that hasn’t even been released.
iPod is already way beyond “just” music. The Nike device is the first of many that will connect with the iPod “platform” for a wearable computer system. And the #1 thing that makes it a platform is that millions of people are already wearing them. The PC is a “platform” because they are already in millions of homes and businesses. To add a new function, you install software on or connect hardware to the platform. And that’s how the iPod will expand even further.
Meet the new zune
same as the old tune
eat my rose bloom
with a shiny soup spoon
When you feel a tick
and you think you’re gettin’ sick
open up your purse and
hit ’em with your brick!
oh yeah… bay-ay-ay-by, uh huh…
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mdn mw: floor. As in pick me up off the floor.
Hit ’em with the brick baby!
Dave Fester, General Manager, Windows Digital Media Division
October 15, 2003
“The service that offers consumers the most tracks and best experience will win the hearts and minds of consumers.”
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2003/oct03/10-15MusicServices.mspx
Here on the Ziffel farm, my defecations look better than the Zune!