“There’s an old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That being the case, Microsoft reminds me of a manic-depressive on the ‘up’ end of the cycle. It runs around like a madman, pushing its latest idea as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then when it doesn’t quite turn out that way, it quietly drops the thing and moves on to their next obsession,” AdamaDBrown writes for Brighthand.
AdamaDBrown writes, “The latest incarnation of this bizarre behavior is the ‘Zune,’ a kind of handheld-meets-iPod device with a 30 GB hard drive and Wi-Fi. Much ado has been made of it, and it’s expected competition with the iPod, but there’s a question that has to be asked: what does the Zune actually do to be worth such hype?
“If you can answer that, you know something I don’t. As far as I can tell, the Zune isn’t particularly compelling in terms of hardware, software, or capabilities. But that’s not stopping Microsoft from putting together a fabulously expensive PR campaign to tell people that the Zune is so wonderful that they have to have one, even if nobody knows what it does. Of course, that’s not exactly a new tactic for Microsoft,” AdamaDBrown writes.
“Microsoft’s line of cure-all miracle products goes back a long, long way. Before the Zune, it was the Origami. Before that, it was PlaysForSure, the Windows Smartphone, tablet PCs, airpanels — remember those? — network PCs, Microsoft Reader, and a dozen other ideas which they could have easily realized were in need of polishing if they just sat down for a minute and thought about it,” AdamaDBrown writes.
“Zune is incompatible with the much-hyped Microsoft DRM initiative called ‘PlaysForSure.’ While they’re both Windows Media, Zune music won’t work on PFS devices, and PFS music won’t work on the Zune. So not only did Microsoft just royally screw everyone who bought music using PlaysForSure on the guarantee that it would be usable on many different devices, but they further screwed every company that built a PFS capable device,” AdamaDBrown writes.
“Which brings me to the other fatal flaw in Microsoft’s rapid-turnover development plans: nobody can trust them. Microsoft’s initiatives have the shelf life of ice cubes in Baja,” AdamaDBrown writes. “It’s deeply ironic that one of the biggest companies in the tech sector is so completely unable to figure out where it’s going, or to support its own products. Perhaps, having a guaranteed revenue stream from their near-monopoly on OS sales, Microsoft has lost the ability to actually design and market a competitive product. But either way, they’ve repeatedly demonstrated that they’re unable or unwilling to extend their attention span beyond two weeks, which is a pity. Because until they do, the Zune and all the other toys like it are only as good as the commitment behind them.”
More in the full article here.
Related articles:
The Microsoft Zune 1.0 dud – September 20, 2006
Microsoft’s underwhelming Zune a ‘viral DRM’ device – September 18, 2006
SanDisk teams with RealNetworks against new common foe: Microsoft Zune – September 18, 2006
Creative does Apple’s dirty work by immediately attacking Microsoft’s Zune – September 17, 2006
Motley Fool’s Jayson: Microsoft’s ‘just plain ugly’ Zune a meager offering, not an iPod killer – September 15, 2006
What’s in a name? ‘Zune’ a French-Canadian euphemism for penis or vagina – September 15, 2006
Crave at CNET: ‘Microsoft Zune, all the excitement that brown can bring’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune underwhelms – September 15, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft Zune ‘a design mistake’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft hypocrisy exposed with Zune: What ever happened to ‘choice?’ – September 14, 2006
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
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
Zune: Insanely Innate!
Zune: Insanely degrate!
Zune: Insanely mastur…ah forget it.
Makes you wonder. As an american, I would hate to see an american company, yes even Micro$oft, go down. It would be bad for the economy in general. But in the same token, M$ seems totally incapable of competing in a meaningful way on all but one major front: That being office productivity software.
For all its shortcomings MS Office is still a great product. Is it overpriced, I don’t think it is, but others do. Does it need improvement, absolutely. It remains the only (suite of) application(s) on my Macs that crash on occasion, although to be fair (to M$) I am running Office v.X and not 2004. Are there cheaper alternatives? Yes, but they are not nearly as good. I have tried OpenOffice, NeoOffice (I have the beta 3 version), Pages, etc. While all functional, they are not as intuitive or fast as Word or Excel. I still use Appleworks on occasion, that was a great product, it was/is definately a step down in complexity from Office, but it was great. Page’s is terrible as a word processor. I have no reason to use Powerpoint or Keynote, so I cannot comment on those. For my requirements, Corel’s Word Perfect (I still use it, albeit rarely, in Classic mode under OS 9) was the penultimate word processor.
I have to agree with the post above by coolfactor. I have seen the demo of Office 2007 and apart from M$’s XML format standards, Ribbons looks to be a great idea to tame the complexity of Office.
Perhaps M$ should consider a split in divisions. My guess is that the Office Suite Applications division would be the only one to prosper and survive.
(brought to by MDN word “brown” as in what the hell were they thinking?)
It’s actually pretty funny. These Apple and Mac lemming sites cover the Zune and Microsoft just about as much as the Microsoft fan sites do. Go figure…
Microsoft never designs good products. Microsoft never this, never that… And, the folks at Apple are deisgn geniuses… Can anyone tell me who designed the XBOX 360, which, along with the ipod, is one of the best selling electronic devices in the U.S. (and abroad)?
you apple-only guys are funny… to read this stuff you’d think that apple never had a flawed product. (remember the hand-held newton…). Further this article suggests that Microsoft’s entry into new spaces has been fruitless (PocketPC Devices vs Palm? Windows Mobile? Internet Explorer vs netscape? Windows Server vs Novell? SQL Server? XBOX and XBOX 360?
you guys are just sooo funny. i know a mac-only guy as well… he’s all over me about how cool it is – and then he comes over if he wants to play video games on my pc or run any number of apps that aren’t availble to him…. BUT, it’s really pretty. really really pretty.
“Arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics.
Even if you win, you’re still retarded.”
“Zune is incompatible with the much-hyped Microsoft DRM initiative called ‘PlaysForSure.’…”
much hyped??? 😐
There is something about people who continually threadjack MDN posts just to hear themself talk politics. Why can’t you get a blog? What is it about nettiquette that you think doesn’t apply to you?
Duh.
Fred, the Newton, created by Apple, spawned the stupid PocketPC you give MS credit for. Internet Explorer? Haha. MS bolted it onto Window so that you were forced to use it. XBOX…how many years after the Ninitendo and Sony playstation
Again, Duh.
And other than games, what incredible killer apps does your friend have to use your computer for?
Are you in High School or something?
anyone notice MS doesnt make joysticks anymore??
I went to buy a force feedback stick, and nothing; from no one, I have found some non MS online, but I always liked the MS for flight sim..
So they cornered the market with sidewinder, put everyone else nearly out of business, and then just deside one day to STOP MAKING THEM. morons, at least I can plug my xbox controller into my mac.. bad taste I know.
not to mention there are no force feedback yokes on the market.. I challange you all to find me one that wasnt fabricated in someones basement; I need a force feedback yoke. non exist…
Yup, this article hits the nail and drives it right on in. The opening paragraph actually spells out how MS got started in the first place – philosophically of course. Bill Gates was (not so much anymore) an absolute genius at convincing people that they could not live without the thing he was offering. And they [they being mostly corporate America] bought right into it.
On the other hand, Apple wanted to rely on the non-corporate consumer to bring them business, as well as institutions of higher learning. I believe this was Apple’s fatal marketing flaw (I thought so back then too.) – I think it was sound logic, but it just didn’t pan out. Steve made the best decisioin he could at the time, and he was just plain wrong. The fact that the general public did not initially go after the Macintosh in droves also says something about what Americans give credibility to, and why, when it comes to consumables.
The history being written right now, pc-wise, looks like MS is/was winning in the educational system and Apple is just beginning to finally make measurable inroads to the non-professional consumer market. So the world may, in the long run, end up being as it was meant to be. (Assuming the world was meant to only have two commercially viable operating systems, which I think, in and of itself, has made for a dismal set of choices for the consumer, and relatively slow technology progress.)
But, like it or not, the only way Apple is really going to take any large share of the non-pro consumer market in any expedited way, is to get themselves into big corporations, and lots of them – Yes, like Bill did.
source:
http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2006/08/26/Zune-_2D00_-The-Hebrew-Perspective.aspx
“Let’s just say that if I were to use it in a sentence it could look like this:
“Would you like to get “Z-une”d and have a cigarette afterwards?”
In fact, it’s enough to utter the header on the ZuneScene page to crack up a little smile if you know a little Hebrew :”Dude, You’re getting a Zune!””
>>you apple-only guys are funny… to read this stuff you’d think that apple never had a flawed product. (remember the hand-held newton…).
The Newton wasn’t really a flawed product–it just had bad marketing and a Doonesbury comic strip kill its chances.
There are plenty of better examples of flawed Apple products. Pippin, to start. The Apple III. The “luggable” first Mac Portable.
Awesome ZUNE cominc at Flickergaming, highlighting the Hebrew word blunder:
MDN Keyword: “ground” as in Zune will never get off the ground, much like the Do Do bird.
Future archaeologists will argue about whether the fossilized mTurd (Zune) is an MP3 player or a coprolite.
sportsunit, et al. I intentionally ommitted XBOX (versions) from my view of M$ divisions likely to succeed, simply because XBOX is a loss leader for M$. Despite it being one of the main game boxes, M$ must subsidize it to the tune of over $100 US per unit sold. I don’t know about you, but that is not exactly my idea of a sound business model. It is certainly not sustainable outside of M$’s large cash reserves, even despite receipt of licensing fees from game developers and game sales. And if M$ XBOX was its own division, it would never have gotten off the ground at the price point that it is/was.
Now this is directly on point with Zune. The original price was to be $289. Then Apple undercut them (I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I bet the Apple board room resounded with a few muffled chuckles over that one). Still, even at the original (?) price point of $289, M$ will loose money. Zune is another loss leader, and if a seperate division from MS, there is no way it would survive. Notwithstanding, there is still a fundamental difference here between Zune the devise and XBOX. XBOX at least has a sustainable revenue source from licensing and evebtually will benefit from decreased manufacturing costs. I will await on Zune. M$, as yet, has no juke box player or music/media store that even comes remotely close to the quality/ease of use/selection of iTunes and the iTunes Store. And in order to compete they are going to have to undercut or match the iTunes store’s 99 cent price point, which basically for Apple is the loss leader to sell iPods (at a profit).
It’s sort of ironic:
–Apple is a hardware manufacturer, who also does software to support said hardware, and does both quite well.
–Microsoft is a software developer, who also does hardware on occassion, but not in support of, or to showcase, it’s own software. And unfortuneately for them, does neither particularly well.
“Microsoft is a software developer, who also does hardware on occassion, but not in support of, or to showcase, it’s own software. And unfortuneately for them, does neither particularly well.”
You’re right, they’ve done terribly in the software business… what are they worth today $240 billion – that’s with a ‘B’.
they sure are in trouble… one product failure after another… it’s been a sad run for the faltering company from the North East….
What’s with the Zune fanboys visiting and posting comments on a Mac news site, and complaining that Mac fanboys are obsessing over Zune?