“Microsoft’s plot to use Wi-Fi capabilities in order advantage its upcoming digital media player over the iPod could have an adverse effect on the player’s battery life, one Wall Street analyst says,” Slash Lane reports for AppleInsider.
“‘We believe the biggest issue […] is that Wi-Fi power requirements are still quite steep and so we are skeptical that battery life will be strong on these Microsoft portable media players,’ American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a note to clients on Monday,” Lane reports.
“While Microsoft declined offer specifics of the products, some analysts claim to have confirmed with the company that its media player device would pack Wi-Fi capabilities, allowing it to download content wirelessly,” Lane reports. “Similar portable devices of slightly larger proportions have recently hit the market with Wi-Fi capabilities, but at the expense of battery life. ‘In our analysis, a Sony PSP lasts only about 45 minutes when Wi-Fi is turned on,’ Wu told clients.
Lane reports, “Wu also believes Microsoft’s Zune products could tarnish its reputation amongst several partners already battling Apple’s iPod dominance. ‘We believe the biggest issue with Microsoft’s entrance into the portable media space is that puts it direct competition with its partners, all of whom support Microsoft’s Windows Media format,’ he said. ‘While the focus is on Apple, we believe this move will likely have a much larger competitive impact on Creative, SanDisk, Sony, Samsung, iRiver, Archos, and others.'”
Full article here.
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Oh yeah—zune….it runs for 4 & 1/2 minutes. I think it zunes out.
Battery is what i’ve been saying!
Damn!
I don’t care who’s idea it (Wi-Fi) is, it is stupid, stupid, stupid.
Why does anyone need wireless on a player?
This is why MS is so damn stupid. They get way ahead of themselves without thinking of the technical rammifications. You would they would have though about it but it is apparent that they have not.
This article nails it on the head. The Zune won’t be an iPod killer. It’s real competitors will be Creative, SanDisk, Sony, Samsung, iRiver, and Archos. And the grand prize will be to see which one of them (if any) can actually claim 10% market share…
You think MS cares about it’s partners? I’m most certain they don’t, and they’d be more than willing to risk the relationship. FIRST POST!
A question to all. I thought Apple pulled the plans to have Tech support located over seas in India. I was wondering because I just got off the phone with the Tech and she said she was working out of India. I know this is wrong but I have to say it was the worse experience I ever had with Tech support from Apple – the main reason I had alot if trouble understanding her and friendliness was gone.
‘iPod killer’ carries about as much weight as ‘Photoshop killer’. It’s a stupid term the media came up with to try and ad interest to an article about another also ran media player. Nobody would have read any articles about Urge if they hadn’t dubbed it an ‘iTunes killer’.
WiFi “sounds” cool I suppose, but one need only take a few seconds to think about its use.
1. When can I think of a situation where I will suddently want to use my portable to not-so-elegantly as iTunes, my way through a memu, find a song I want and buy it for some random reason?… If I want a song, I’ll quickly buy it via iTunes, it’s that simple…
2. So I’m in Starbucks and see WiFi abilities. But oh yeah, I need a Hot Spot T-Mobile account for like $20 a month! Just so I can buy a song at impulse? I don’t think so.
But now I’m somewhere else, and I have WiFi, but it’s Verizon. Drat, I’m not Verizon on my cell, nor do I have their WiFi account! Blast!
And the list goes on.
3. Soaking up battery life so I can randomly buy a song or two every few months is not even close to being worth it – not even close.
The only real application I can see WiFi being a big deal is with connecting to a PC/Mac. Taking away the plugging in step would be nice I suppose, but again, is it worth it?
MS is rumored to be selling the Zune for $399 for a 30 GB player.
Meanwhile, Apple will have a touch-screen, full-screen, solution, rumored to have bluetooth headsets (makes much more sense than WiFi), with an 80 GB drive, and smaller size than the Zune for $399. What would you buy!?
Can I say the obvious? Duh! This device will be as useful as the Oragami project crap.
Microsoft seen limiting battery life on Microsoft’s Zune
or even better
Microsoft seen limiting logic amongst Microsoft’s products/customers
Microslothy: Microsoft eats its young. Partners, you have been warned over and over. Prepare to be… lunch!
G-Man in B’ham: “iPod Killer” is as much a commentary on the Microsoft mentality as it is a headline attention-grabber. Microsoft seems unable to simply “enter” a market, play nice with the competition and may the best product win. They feel they must “kill” the market leader, annihilating all competition until all that’s left is their mediocre brand of crap.
Witness this latest assault. They don’t even have a product! They’re pre-announcing to try and instill doubt in the minds of the buying public: “Well, I was gonna buy an iPod but now there’s this Zone thing. Maybe I should wait!”
Will you be surprised to see Zune in the stores this Christmas? I’ll be surprised to see it *next* Christmas!
I hate Microsoft and their scummy marketing tactics.
Not meaning to defend MS here (of course, these are all just rumors anyway), but why would you turn on the wi-fi unless you were going to use it? Unless you spend all your time downloading music instead of listening to it, this is not an issue.
Zillionth
Underwhelming
New
Entry
To “Steven”: But the hip young people in the Verizon commercials are always buying songs on their phones, just so they can jam on the sidewalk to some song they didn’t realize they liked until that exact moment and couldn’t wait to get home to purchase!
Is my sarcasm coming through?
All the “hip young people” I know — my neighbors’ kids — get shut down in a hurry when they present their $400 wireless bill to their parents. Zune = GROUNDED!
MW “Western” — Microsoft: Proudly Spearheading The Decline Of Western Civilization
This is typical Microsoft design by committee. Shovel in all of the desirable features into a bucket, shake and market the crap out of it. There seems to be no sense of real world constraints in their product conceptualization.
I’ve seen it before, being a systems designer in my past work life. A few managers do understand that the laws of nature rule, but most do not. And when the chief whip cracker does not, death march projects result. The only music Zune will be playing after hitting the market will be its own dirge.
M$ has to stick it to their “partners.” If they don’t counter the iPod effectively soon, the trickle of the halo effect will become an avalanch as more folks get used to Apple software & decide to switch. It has finally dawned on M$ that they could loose a big part of the home market if they don’t come up with a windows answer to Apple’s products.
Unfortunately for them, the game is now Apple’s to loose as M$ is several years behind. They will likely licence their DRM to their partners, and that could be a problem for Apple. Or Apple could licence their DRM, but that’s also a problem for Apple, just not of the same magnitude.
As others have pointed out, all Apple has to do if Zune appears to be getting a foothold in the market is to license Fairplay to all the disgruntled MS “partners” who just found out the hard way that there’s sand in the Microsoft Vaseline.
On one side of the equation, you’d have Apple, Creative (maybe), iRiver, Dell, Sony… RCA, Samsung, Toshiba, Sandisk, Philips, Archos — all happily playing Fairplay-protected AAC files and happily downloading songs from iTunes. What Apple loses in hardware sales, it can make up in song sales volume and licensing fees.
On the other side, you’d have… Zune. Oh, wow, PlaysFerShur! Crappy music store interface. 45-minute battery life. Subscription fees. Wireless fees. Incompatible with every other service on the planet.
Talk about embarrassment. Here ya go, Microsoft, why doncha put some Vaseline on that scrape.
Zune. Sounds like the echo when you fart down a drainage culvert.
To be fair to Microsoft, everybody knows by now that the PSP is a piece of crap. The DS gets hours of active wireless use and the Lite is substantially smaller. The real culprits on the PSP battery life are the optical disk and excessive processing power. Besides, wireless can be turned off when it’s not in use.
The real problem with wireless is that it’s an example of Microsoft’s inability to control themselves when it comes to features. Years after the infamous “no wireless. lame” comment on Slashdot, nobody has yet to figure out what use wireless is on an audio or video player. If you could CHARGE over wireless, then you would have something. Otherwise, I’d rather have something useful like a built-in heater for when I visit Antarctica.
Quick find me a power zocket!! It’s going to be out of juice real zune!
I am dearly looking forward to the next iPod which I am sure will be killer.
Come on u know Zune will rule so hard. Who listens to music longer than 45 minutes anways? that’s how long an ablum is. You listen to an album then you go home and change up and you can listen to another album tomorrow. only a real adiophile Mac zealot would care about this issue.
oh yeah… FIRST POST …guess your Macs aint so fast after all/?
Hmp!
Zune is EXACTLY what I named my POOOOO!!!!
“Little Zuney” my wife and I call him.
Now THAT’S brilliance. Thank you Microsoft, you gave me my poooooooo.
The PSP has a wifi switch to ensure its only on for the seconds/minutes its needed -I’m sure even M$ can work that out.
The point here is that Zune is a ame without form. Look what vista or xbox360 was originally spec’ed to comprise and as they got close to release all the whizz just evapourated.
Papa!!!!
I can see it now… an entire line of Zune-rrific extension cords.
Zune out with the 50′, 100′ or 250′ cord, voltage booster included.
ALL available in deesigner colors! Beige! Taupe! Fawn!
Little man: Not meaning to defend MS here (of course, these are all just rumors anyway), but why would you turn on the wi-fi unless you were going to use it? Unless you spend all your time downloading music instead of listening to it, this is not an issue.
This is the entire point. Apple tries not to put features into the iPod unless everyone can use them. All the calls for FM radio on the iPod went unheeded. You can still only get it if you buy a remote control add-on. Satellite radio? Why include this in a global player when satellite radio is a US service?
If you can’t guarantee a good user experience, don’t include it. To paraphrase Steve Jobs last year, he said that it’s very difficult to take something out of the iPod once you added it, so they think very carefully about what they are going to add.
You can’t say that if you’re not going to use it, don’t turn it on. The fact that it is there adding complexity to your interface counts as a minus point whenever anyone is evaluating it.