Andy McCue (silicon.com) spoke with Microsoft’s UK Media Director Gordon Frazer about Microsoft’s Zune, among other things. About Zune, Frazer explained:
At this stage we have no firm plans to launch anywhere else globally. Does this mean we’ll launch in the UK? I can’t tell you when [it will launch] for sure and I can’t even necessarily tell you if. We’re going to see how this goes in the US and what lessons we learn and see if we get that right, and then make the right decision for the UK. But right now that decision hasn’t been made, so the launch will only be in the US.
Today certainly Apple is the market leader, I don’t think anybody is questioning that and they are out ahead in a lot of ways. They deserve the credit they get, they’ve built up a large installed base, they continue to be the market leader. But we think there are things that can be done better. One of the big trends, broadly, not just in music, is around social networking and the ability for people to exchange and share information, ideas, music and experiences. It’s a new business for us and we’re enthusiastic about it. We’ll see where it goes.
Full article here.
This is the first semi-intelligent thing we’ve seen from Microsoft regarding their brown squirter: they make it easier on themselves financially and logistically to cut and run (à la PlaysForSure) once they figure out that Zune’s a failure, too.
Related articles:
Five Microsoft Zune TV commercials – November 02, 2006
JupiterResearch: Apple’s iPod will dominate for foreseeable future; Microsoft’s Zune insignificant – October 25, 2006
Ellen DeGeneres Show gives away Microsoft Zunes, studio audience goes berserk – October 23, 2006
More Microsoft Zune myths explored – October 20, 2006
Five more Microsoft Zune myths – October 18, 2006
Microsoft Zune intensifies chaos in Apple iPod+iTunes also-ran market – October 16, 2006
Newsweek Q&A: Apple CEO Steve Jobs discusses iPod’s impact, Microsoft’s Zune, and more – October 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Ballmer: Zune device not money loser, wishes Apple’s 30GB iPod was $299 instead of $249 – October 11, 2006
Microsoft’s consumer electronics track record: long string of failures – October 11, 2006
MP3.com founder: ‘Zune will be an expensive failure for Microsoft because consumers aren’t stupid’ – October 06, 2006
Microsoft fails to secure key Zune domains – October 04, 2006
Microsoft rigs Zune with tricky pricing and proprietary money schemes – October 03, 2006
Why Microsoft’s Zune won’t kill Apple’s iPod – October 03, 2006
10 Apple iPod vs. Microsoft Zune myths – October 02, 2006
Analyst: Zune could lead to ‘civil war’ between Microsoft and Windows Media partners – September 29, 2006
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More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: iRiver pulling out of Europe? – February 01, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Thomson gives up on MP3 player, CE markets – December 12, 2005
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Apple’s iTunes Music Store has blood on its play button: BuyMusic.com is dead – March 28, 2004
Hey, has anyone seen my Origami?
-c
MW: ‘death’
I’ll give it a year….
before it appears in the UK.
Honestly, you all know that. MS says a lot of BS, but ends up doing the exact opposite.
Wow… social networking is a trend! They are so observant. Good thing they noticed early, they’ll be able to ride the first wave of benefiting from hunting and gathering, advent of agriculture, the use of verbal languages to communicate, collective portection from predators, the wheel for transportation, how to control fire–the list goes on and on.
But then I should expect such vision from the company that prompts me with the message that a “human interface device” has been detected whenever I boot in windoze to play a game.
“Social networking” is MySpace and Facebook. It is not the Zune.
I notice MDN missed an even far more significant bit of info from the article.
Regarding the success of Vista and Office 2007:
“Gordon Frazer: Our expectation of Vista is that it will be the fastest-adopted operating system ever. We are predicting that within the first year 100 million PCs will be running Windows Vista, and certainly in the UK I don’t see why that would be any different”
Notice Microsoft is trying to claim credit for the success or failure of Vista based on the total number of units sold. This of course guarantees them a success, regardless of how well Vista gets adopted because there are FAR more computers in use today than 5 years ago when XP came out.
What would be far more telling is the percentage of total computers in use vs how many run Vista. If Vista say has 15% of the total PC user base installed in 1 year it could look like a big number but would be far less of a success if say XP had 25% of a smaller total pool of PCs.
I look forward to checking in 1 year to see how well Vista is doing and compare it’s success to OS X Leopard.
Microsoft knows that only Americans would buy it.
Squirt a few to Turkmenistan.
MacDailyNews Note – just collect the news from the other websites and leave your nonsense comments out. Nobody cares.
Please excuse the following brain cramp but…. If M$ were smart, on Nov 30 they would launch, not the brown brick everyone has seen, but 6 flavors (colors) of a really outstanding MP3 player with WIFI and cell phone that they have been hiding using the current Zune as a cover. That way instead of dread, everyone who sees it says wow! The extreme range of surprise from horrible to decent will make their offerings seem all that much greater. Simple marketing, from the company who excels at marketing. This is well within their ability, and if they actually want to enter this market they will need a big splash like this.
from an earlier Sept. MDN article,,,,,,,
“Microsoft Corp. market researchers in Quebec found themselves in a potential linguistic pickle when they conducted consumer test-runs of the digital music player Zune, which the company officially announced on Thursday will be competing by Christmas with Apple’s hugely successful iPod,” Randy Boswell reports for CanWest News Service.
Boswell reports, “A Microsoft spokeswoman in Montreal told CanWest News Service that ‘it was pointed out to us’ during focus groups in the province that the proposed brand name sounded much like a French-Canadian term used as a euphemism for penis or vagina.”,,,,,Puts the Balmer term “squirting” in perspective. Designed to offend everyone – and yes it will be released in Canada at the same time and no Microsoft UK, Canada isn’t part of the US
So why bother. America is not the world. Zune will not topple iPod if it’s only available in the U.S. (and via international mail order I assume) But maybe that’s not the point. What is Microsoft up to???
This website is quickly turning into the ZuneDailyNews.
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Well, URGE/MSN started in may -and allready pulling the plug. They DID have a subscriptionservice and MTV made 24 blogs og different music”tastes” to be like a “social-experience”…
Must be embarassing…
John Bull:
Idiocy knows no boundries and you have provided the proof.
1 GB black “iPod nanos” only $79 Cnd. Selling like hotcakes. Hurry while supplies last:
http://www.toysrus.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=103483&N=27+&nvalue=27
Seriously, I hope Apple legal sends a “friendly” Christmas card to Toys R Us Canada before the buying season heats up!!!
They already know Zune’s a failure. It’s fading just like that “Origami” abortion.
-jcr
That zune (brown) shit – including the marketing campaign – won’t work in Europe. Only North Korea might be tempted by such ergonomic brown device. The zune ads are so bad, they look like someone wanted them to fail. Long live iEurope.