“Microsoft does not expect an immediate return on its outlay for its upcoming ‘Zune’ media player, predicting a three- to five-year investment period for the new device,” Reuters reports.
“‘It is something that is going to take time,’ Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, said at Microsoft’s annual analyst meeting. ‘This is not a six-month investment time horizon,’ he said, adding that it may take three, four or five years to succeed,” Reuters reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BrooklynNYC” for the heads up.]
“The software giant plans to have one music player in the U.S. this year, expanding into other devices and regions next year, [said] Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News.
“Microsoft confirmed its plans for its Zune-branded player and service last week, but has offered scant details beyond the fact that it will have a hard drive-based music player with a built-in Wi-Fi connection on the market this year,” Fried reports. “The move is a radical departure for the software maker, which has until now tried to take on Apple with a partner approach, in which many devices and services used Microsoft’s technology. Although the devices and services were by and large compatible, the experience hasn’t been what Microsoft hoped.”
Fried reports, “Bach said Microsoft is not abandoning its partner-oriented PlaysForSure program, even as it looks to build its rival Zune approach. ‘PlaysForSure continues as it is today,’ he said, addressing a question from analysts. ‘We’re going to continue to support that,’ he said.”
Full article here.
Are Microsoft really shooting for 20% of the iPod market or are they actually targeting the 20% of the market that iPod currently doesn’t own? We suspect the latter. Regardless, we hope Microsoft spends a lot of money on this. While we don’t see Microsoft’s efforts as much of a threat to iPod+iTunes, we also hope it pushes Apple by providing some measure of real competition that will drive innovation even faster.
For more on why we don’t think Microsoft can “kill” Apple’s iPod+iTunes, please read SteveJack’s take here.
Related articles:
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Isn’t M$ losing their ass on the Xbox?
Apple’s iTunes works on both Mac OS and Winblows OS. Do you think M$ will play nice and offer an Mac version of ZooTunes?
Welcome back Ampar!
Microsoft plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to catch up to Apple Computer in the music business, but expects the effort to take several years.
That sentence can fit almost any MS product. Aren’t they spending milliions to catch up with OS X as well? Once “several years” comes to pass Apple’s iPod (or whatever will come after) will be able to download aliens from Mars while MS is still trying to talk Boy George into allowing the Kulture Club catalog onto Zune.
“wmd”:When M$ has billions sitting around. 5 to 10 years is nothing. MS can take its time and beat Apple with FUD, lots of hype.
And you base this on what, exactly? Give an example of this strategy working for Microsoft, other than office software and IE.
This is all a deliberate attempt to distract everyone that Vista is massively late and that Windows is a virus-ridden and unproductive OS.
Thanks, MikeR!
“Microsoft to <strike>spend</strike>waste hundreds of millions . . .”
“Microsoft does not expect an immediate return on its outlay for its upcoming ‘Zune’ media player”
Yeah, the old Mafia method: Just invade the market to destroy any competitor, with whatever sh*tty product, with whatever UNETHICAL HALF CRIMINAL methods.
The Micro$hit WAY!
According to an Oct. 2005 Forbes magazine article (via Daring Fireball), it is estimated that Microsoft lost $4 billion on the Xbox between 2001-2005.
If I was a Microsoft shareholder, I would not be happy about this. The company is preparing to enter a market where they won’t make money for four years? And their losses will be in the millions of dollars? Regardless of how much money they have, the point is that this reflects poor management of their resources. Who goes into business to lose money, anyways? Is Zune really a smokescreen for failures in the OS sector? I can’t help but to think so.
one thing good about this is it will force Apple to
bring out new/improved/updated products more often than once a year.
“Hi. I’m an iPod.”
“And I’m a Zune.”
Crowds of people walk in and past Zune to get to iPod.
One lone person walks up to the Zune:
“Do you know where the washroom is?”
Microsoft has proven time and again that they can take a market by brute force. They haven’t always succeeded but it would be foolish to underestimate them. They can deliver quality products.
Apple should license their fairplay drm, and if they time it right, they could effectively render MS’s playsforsure drm worthless – orphaned so to speak – as everyone including all the partners MS has abandoned jump on board with fairplay.
The long term money is in the software not the hardware and that’s what’s made MS so rich.
many people think apple is facing hard times according to [url=http://www.zune-player.net]http://www.zune-player.net[/url]