“Microsoft has kept people guessing about its so-called ‘iPod killer’ Zune, leaking bits of information at a time,” Stan Beer writes for iTWire. “One thing is clear. If Microsoft is to have any chance of success greater than zero pitting Zune against iPod, it needs its own online music store. The question on everyone’s lips is does it have one in the pipeline? The question on my lips is that what the commercial on YouTube is about? Is Alexandria Microsoft’s answer to iTunes? If so, does this change the ball game?”
Microsoft’s “Alexandria” video:
Beer writes, “The question remains, however, why would iPod and iTunes users move across? There has to be a compelling reason.”
“It’s going to be a tough sell coming into a market that you’ve never played in before against a competitor who has it all. Apple has dominant market share, experience with the business model, design expertise and the image that fits the market,” Beer writes. “This is not to say that Microsoft cannot enter the market but if the company expects to come in knock over Apple by sheer marketing brute force then it’s going to take time, loads of money and it has to have something clearly superior to the iPod and iTunes package.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “mrmikey” for the heads up.]
You just know that every actor in that video happily went home to their Macs while listening to their iPods.
Related articles:
In wake of Zune, Microsoft ‘partners’ consider abandoning PlaysForSure – July 25, 2006
Wi-Fi seen limiting battery life on Microsoft’s Zune – July 24, 2006
Why Microsoft’s Zune is doomed to fail – July 24, 2006
Bear Stearns analyst expects Apple to respond to Microsoft’s ‘challenge’ with new iPod innovations – July 24, 2006
Microsoft Zune? They should’ve called it the Microsoft ‘iClod’ – July 24, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft’s ‘iPod killer’ Zune is ‘brilliant strategy’ – July 24, 2006
Microsoft’s so-called ‘iPod killer’ Zune won’t zoom up the charts – July 23, 2006
Microsoft confirms ‘iPod Killer’ plans – July 21, 2006
Microsoft’s rumored ‘iPod killer’ poses little threat to Apple’s domination – July 18, 2006
Microsoft plans Super Bowl ad for ‘iPod killer’ – July 17, 2006
Sounds serious: Microsoft approaches iPod accessory makers for Zune would-be ‘iPod killer’ – July 12, 2006
Microsoft preps complete line of Xbox-branded digital-media products – July 11, 2006
Photo of Microsoft’s ‘iPod killer?’ – July 11, 2006
10 reasons why Microsoft’s ‘iPod killer’ will fail – July 11, 2006
Enderle on what it would take for Microsoft to kill Apple’s iPod – July 10, 2006
Microsoft: ‘iPod killer’ reports based on ‘speculation and rumors’ – July 07, 2006
Can Microsoft hit a fast moving target? Apple likely to debut wireless iPod this year – July 07, 2006
Analysts: Microsoft faces uphill fight to supplant Apple’s iPod+iTunes market dominance – July 07, 2006
Microsoft plans to convert iPod users by replacing iTMS songs with free WMA format songs – July 06, 2006
Microsoft to release wireless ‘iPod killer’ by Christmas to challenge Apple – July 05, 2006
Analyst Wu: Microsoft unlikely to dethrone Apple iPod+iTunes – June 21, 2006
Microsoft preps iPod+iTunes killer – June 19, 2006
Report: Microsoft readying Apple iPod+iTunes rival – June 16, 2006
Microsoft: No iPod killer planned – June 05, 2006
Microsoft, Toshiba, DoCoMo, Victor to develop Japan iPod+iTunes killer – June 02, 2006
Patent application shows iPod capable of live wireless video conferencing – June 13, 2006
Apple patent application filed for wireless iPod+iTunes distribution – May 04, 2006
Generator Research: Apple to Ship $4.2bn in Wireless iPods (WiPods) by 2010 – March 14, 2006
Ready for your wireless Apple iPod? – February 09, 2006
Wireless iPod? CSR and PortalPlayer to bring wireless connectivity to personal media players – February 08, 2006
Wireless Apple iPods coming in 2006? – December 09, 2005
More blood on Apple iTunes Music Store’s play button: MyCokeMusic is dead – June 20, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: iRiver gives up on digital media player market – May 23, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Sony’s Walkman Bean is cooked – February 13, 2006
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Dell dumps ‘DJ’ hard-drive MP3 player line – February 04, 2006
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
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: BenQ withdraws from MP3 player markets – November 28, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Olympus halts production of portable digital music players – November 09, 2005
More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Rio is dead – August 26, 2005
Apple’s iPod has blood on its Click Wheel: Virgin Electronics is dead – March 08, 2005
Apple’s iTunes Music Store has blood on its play button: BuyMusic.com is dead – March 28, 2004
At least Microcrap is consitent… the commercial is long and complicated and takes forever to get to the point and ends leaving you feeling completely unsatisfied and not intrigued as the makers clearly would have hoped.
Is it just me of was David Koresh directing this!?
Everyone hypnotized by this “thing.” A gal is talking to a friend, and the one listening just tunes her out and walks away as she is sucked into the vortex…
People doing their work, needing to be productive, but a guy pulls out the “You are all slaves to me” device, and they are sucked in like bugs to light.
And of course the smart Indian boy walks in, understands and knows what this is, but is helpless against it’s pull as well…
Nice message MS – downright spooky.
This is an ad that a team on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice (is it 5 or 6 now?) came up with.
They obviously lost the competition.
Donald tells them in the Boardroom never to tie yourself to a deadline.
davida,
You were trying to fend off brain washing. How else is Microsoft going to get people to switch from iPod to Zune?
Oh, and people were watching, not listening and grooving.
Zune is obviously all about video.
Check out all the Hip, young people in that ad! One (guy) over 40 (pushing 60?) and one (gal) over 30 (over 35?) and the rest arguably 20-somethings. One (small) group is looking at a (?)15″(?) notebook screen while another (larger) crowd is (supposedly) looking at a smaller (cell phone? Blackberry?) screen.
davida and macromancer, it isn’t half bad if you sit back to analyze what they are doing and why. The graphics are good, the faces are pretty, there’s no real message – just expectation-building as in those early Infiniti ads Steven mentioned – along with a defining of the target audience. I’m sure Betting Man got it right with that cynical observation of their channel use – YouTube, let them pay for the ads themselves! And … their usual commercials wouldn’t play well to that audience.
If that’s the “Sizzle”, I don’t want to taste the Steak.
This has Origami written all over it.
IT’S EVERYWHERE MAN, IT’S EVERYWHERE!!!!
DL, if MS actually ever DELIVERED anything that was inspiring as this suggests, this sort of ad campaign would work. They don’t, so it’s all just fluff.
They may be trying to build anticipation of something, but for what it is, that ad is WAY too long.
Snooze.
I have absolutely no idea what the hell it was that I just watched.
If that is a legitimate Microsoft (legitimate and Microsoft in the same sentence – I should get money for that) commercial it taught me two things:
1) MS’ marketing department sucks just as bad as their R&D (ha,ha) and
2) there sure are a lot of ugly friggin’ people buying MS products.
Any more info concerning a Microsoft media player and i’m going to assume this isn’t a mac news site anymore
Boring!
I think the underlying graphics says it all:
Patchwork.
by the way, Microsloth, summer is almost over.
The people are “ready” but they keep waiting and waiting and waiting.
Maybe that’s the actual Vista Ship date on the screen they’re looking at.
You know, I was thinking about getting a white iPod video, but thanks to that commercial, I’m sold… I’m getting the black iPod video that that business dude was holding up and that all of those people were gathering around… the black one is indeed pretty cool.
Hunh,… it’s a Microsoft commercial? Hmm. whatever.
“…Unoriginal ad.”
You got that right. The first thing I thought of was the iTunes commercial from some time ago. The one with all the flipping album covers that expanded up and out to form buildings and a eventually a whole city.
I hope MS runs this. What a perfect, pathetic example of MS’s copycat unoriginality. And the whole world will be witness.
pathetic…
even the text/font used and overall look of the closing shots (gradual shading out at edges) look like something out of Apple advertising/graphics.
(noticed a lot of “reflections off black surfaces” look in recent ads lately too… the mutiple iChat “video conference” and iLife “reflections” themes look)
(sigh) Am I the only one who reads the comments before posting?
“JayBone” said: Sorry, fellaz. But that video was also “leaked” at the time of all that crap hype about “Origami” a few months back.
Presuming JayBone isn’t talking out his ass, this means the commercial is probably for something totally different. And that makes sense. Why the hell would anyone release a teaser ad for “Summer 2006” in late July???
But no one will read this. You’re all too busy scrolling down to feedback window to notice.
A tad long to say the least, but the idea of Plain-Jane matt-black brick has appeal, if it works properly.
Microsoft can do it right, as the excellent XBox shows.
Still, let’s see what new iPods Apple has for us first!
I’m just about to order a wireless Mighty Mouse, at least I will when Apple UK manages a working link in the online store…
Was that a Black MacBook?
DJ,
‘Microsoft can do it right, as the excellent XBox shows’
So losing billions on a piece of hardware to make a few bucks royalty on each piece of software that runs on it is your idea of doing it right?
Microsoft is going to be the first company in history to make money on the media download store after selling Zune hardware at a loss?
I believe you DJ, I really do.
That video’s rather long and boring…
…much like Microsoft.
It fits the pattern of all Microsoft’s other ads: We see lots of people gawking at the product or explaiming how great it is, or we hear a voiceover claiming it’ll change the world, but no information on what the hell it is or what it does.
The central message is always, “It doesn’t matter exactly what it does or how well it does it, but everybody else wants one so badly (see? there they are) it must be desirable and you should want one too.”
The trouble is (for Microsoft), that kind of message got its “proven track record” because it always used to work so well. So many people didn’t really understand new techo-gadgets anyway, and all they had to go on was hype, so seeing other people’s interest was all they had to go on.
Consumers are more sophisticated now. We know what we like. We know what it does. We own one, in fact, and we know exactly how it makes our lives better.
Isn’t this typicall Microsoft though, albeit this time aimed at the consumer.
This ad effectively says “don’t care about what it is, what it does, how it will change you…… you’ll just want it,….. and others probably will too” Also ” You will want one because other people will be interested and that will make you feel important.”
After all, it’s what others think that counts right
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> !!
I personally loved the apple silouette ads by TBWA. It showed one person immersed in the music and expressing their feeling through dance, distanced to the outside world. The self confidence to choose something for you, not for others.
I think the guy at the end of the ad holding the “device” away from him is really thinking “Man, did I really spend 400 bucks on this thing?”
David Low…
Thats weird… your comments weren’t there when I started to write this!
Only noticed it through reading other comments in more depth, and seeing if mine had been posted!
Agree with the comments about it being too long & missing the point.
KISS
This is a re-post of a funny example showing how MS might “improve” on the iPod’s packaging.
man they really are copying apple
A WHOLE COMMERCIAL with out once showing the product