“The announcement of Zune did one thing, if one thing only. It didn’t just send fear through the hearts of iPod product planners, but through those beating organs of Microsoft partners too,” Charlie Demerjian writes for The Inquirer. “For the Vole has a long history of screwing its partners, sometimes on a whim, sometimes with planning, and we are in the midst of another chapter of that book.”
“For those of you living in a cave, Apple built a better mousetrap, painted it white, and made it the object of pretentious fashion-slaves everywhere. They sell by the millions, and Apple now controls about 80 per cent of that market. Microsoft came along with a slew of third-rate, knock-off technologies, none of which is worth writing about, with crushing DRM baked in to the DNA,” Demerjian writes. “The software giant did about as well as the guy at the county fair offering to hit you on the head with a crowbar for a mere $100, and now all the other Microsoft providers together control a quarter of Apple’s marketshare.”
Demerjian writes, “For the first time, Microsoft is making the damn thing instead of licensing the code or protocols. You have companies like iRiver who make really great products on an R&D budget less than what the Vole spends on coffee for its ad people. It won’t be able to compete. So, with Zune, Microsoft is going to take an already fragmented market, IE not iPod, and steamroller over it. In a year, you will have a choice between iPod and Zune, with a bunch of no-name store brand clones clinging by their fingernails to the low-margin market. If you made the mistake of partnering with Microsoft over media players, you are going to get crushed.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy” for the heads up.]
By SteveJack
On one hand, Microsoft’s “partners” deserve what’s coming to them because they really have failed quite miserably. On the other hand, Microsoft remains one of the scummiest companies on earth.
Apple cannot lose. And Microsoft cannot win. That Microsoft is even trying Zune now only highlights their rampant mismanagement and bad decision-making.
The Zune announcement didn’t send fear through the hearts of iPod product planners, it sent laughter from their bellies.
If Microsoft’s Zune shows any real signs of life — a longshot based on history; Microsoft’s been trying to best iPod for half a decade already — Apple CEO Steve Jobs can simply license FairPlay to Microsoft’s former “partners” at very favorable terms to Apple, as they do face Microsoft’s big scary steamroller. Favorable terms will naturally include dropping “Plays For Sure” Windows Media DRM compatibility and FairPlay exclusivity for an extended period of time.
People aren’t going to stop buying iPods just because some other lesser companies finally have iTunes-compatible players. Ditto for buying from the iTunes Store. Jobs has to be thanking Microsoft which must be why he goaded them into this Zune nonsense in the first place. After everyone else licenses FairPlay from Apple, then everyone — except Microsoft — will be iPod+iTunes compatible. Game. Set. Match.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
[Update: 1:50pm EDT: revised “past history” to read simply “history.”]
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What is really interesting is not who will win and who will lose. But all the garbage we heard from all the “wintel know-it-alls” on “Apple will fail with the iPod/iTunes”. Something like… “Apple’s close market iPod will be steam rolled with the Wintels open market & WMP”. Now it looks like MS is taking a page out of Apples closed market playbook to try to beat Apple.
Can someone from the “know-it-all” group tell me why is MS moving to a close market!
wmd
What MS has admitted is that tight integration of hardwar/software/services is the way to go. Apple was able to dominate the market with that strategy and MS wants to copy it.
Here’s their big problem. They have screwed their partners in this venture and any company that trusts MS enough to partner with them in the future is taking a big risk. As a result MS will have to do all their own R&D, something that they have farmed out to their partners.
Does MS have a coherent R&D plan for the next 5 years? Probably not. As a result, Apple will likely dominate integrated phones, media centers, shoes, toilets, or whatever people want connected into their digital hub.
Good luck MS. Better hold onto that cash, you’ll need it.
but what’s going to stop MS from licensing their DRM to the same people that Apple would license FairPlay?
With nearly EVERY story about Zune (or an opportunity to bash M$), it may be easier to only go to MacNN or MacInTouch, etc… instead of bothering to come here at all.
Apple will win in the end no matter what Microsoft does in any aspect. Erk hit it right on the head, non-savvy, cheap buyers. Apple builds premium products that are more advanced than average, while at the same time being more usable than average. Microsoft running PCs are usually average hardware with average software. Point being ? Technology is past the point of average and accelerating. If 1 person buys the cheapest plainest PC today, and another, a high end Mac, within 3 years there will be a drastic and ever-widening gap between them. The Mac will have 3 new versions of a better OS, it will have utilized new technology that will probably just begin to enter the low budget PC market. Productivity will have been vastly increased due to a superior OS, relativity free of virii and spyware. Think about it, if Apple is a Mercedes doing 50mph going across the country, and Microsoft is a Yugo doing 20mph . . . . Clifford Stoll mentions this in his book ‘Silicon Snake Oil’ , technology will create a gap in society sooner or later. People who choose to use Windows because everyone else does, without at least trying a Mac and making an informed decision, will become the victims of their own ignorance. Most all Apple used compared the two based on hardware and software, and bought the one they felt was better based on knowledge and reasoning. Why can’t Apple’s marketshare ever be 98% ? the same reason everyone can’t be a millionaire brain surgeon, the Bell Curve. Basically average people make average decisons which keep them average, more intelligent people make more intelligent decisions which helps them succeed. Zune is Steve Ballmer the loud guy, iPod is Steve Jobs the mastermind. New Zune stories every day have only confused those confused in the first place, and actually will be Microsofts tipping point. Engineers have left, Bill Gates is leaving, if Origami, Zune and Vista fail to deliver . . . the more intelligent will abandon ship, while the rest go down to the bottom.
<rant over>
No one knows what, exactly, Zune is let alone if it will be competative. All we know is that, for the most part, Microsoft software is responsible for the failure of all of iPod’s compeditors.
Given that, it’s safe to say that iPod will still have the design and the software advantage over Zune, whatever the hell it will be.
That design and software advantage and iPod’s massive installed base head start is really all we need to know.
With no Microsoft monopoly advantage, they can no longer make the player part of the OS, Apple can beat them at any game they want to play.
Steve Jack is offering nothing new here. It’s the same old, tired, and just plain stupid MDN take regarding Zune.
No, Apple will not license their technology. What would Apple gain? A bunch of losers.
If you don’t have anything new to say Steve Jack and MDN, please just don’t say anything. And why on earth do you have to repeat the exact same phrase over and over and over again? Game, set, match!
I don’t think the Zune will make much of a splash. If it has some elements of cool technology, it will keep Apple innovating.
http://ThereIsNoZune.com
As long as Apple can rape their customers with an overpriced ipod, they will fight tooth and nail not to license fairplay. If competition can force apple to lower their price and profit margin, which is good for consumers, apple may open up fairplay to licensing.
(Remember, what’s good for apple is not necessarily good for their consumers)
If that’s the case, go Zune!
…the vapor that everyone loves
“Microsoft remains one of the scummiest companies on earth.”
What a ridiculous statement.
Does anyone besides MDN think that for one second Apple will license
FairPlay to anyone. NEVER MDN.
Way off base on that one. Why would apple allow people to buy
$30 players instead of Apple Shuffles? Apple makes it’s big money in Ipods and it Will NOt Risk losing that money, NEVER.
I didn’t buy my iPod because of marketing like every MS FanMo insists.
It’s because I sat on the fence for a year reading MP3 reviews in the wall Street Journal, and every single review referenced the apple as the benchmark in ease of use and reliability.
It’s nice to finally see a name with the MDN takes. (a favorite part of mine)
Good journalistic move, keep it up MDN!
“Microsoft remains one of the scummiest companies on earth.”
[What a ridiculous statement.]
I have to agree with ‘toonie’.
That sentence should read:
‘Microsoft remains THE scummiest company on earth.’
micro$oft will sell them for $1
“SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user”
Gee, you never would’ve guessed, and he seems to get more and more bitter with each MDN take he writes.
“Apple CEO Steve Jobs can simply license FairPlay to Microsoft’s former “partners” at very favorable terms to Apple”
Yes, that’s the whole problem that’s started all of this “iPod-killer” nonsense. Apple’s got a closed system, so you either deal with that or you buy something that works with everyone else. And since Apple is the current king of the hill, everyone is eager to dethrone them. If Apple licensed FairPlay, they would stop selling iPods though because, let’s face it, everyone knows there are better players out there.
What Apple NEEDS to do, to turn the scales on Microsoft (who is also creating a closed system now) is OPEN THE IPOD to work with music from other vendors.
Apple built a better mousetrap, painted it white, and made it the object of pretentious fashion-slaves everywhere.
I bought a 3G the day they hit the Apple Stores. While I may, arguably, be described by some as “pretentious”, you only need look at my:
a) wardrobe (still have stuff from 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s)
b) car (’94 Acura that runs great)
c) home (1860s Victorian, OK condition, never was ‘upper class’)
and you’ll know I’m not just “not a slave to fashion”, but “fashion blind”.
Can Apple lose this? Sure. But not any time soon and likely not to MS.
MDN MW: well – “a deep subject” – a joke that was old when my gramps was born.