“‘Welcome to the social’ is the tagline on store posters spotted for Zune, Microsoft’s personal digital music player, which arrives in stores Nov. 14,” Emily Burg reports for MediaPost.
Burg reports, “That concept plays on Zune’s sharing functionality, which allows users to transfer songs to each other over a WiFi network. While not quite a category-killer application, it is a feature that distinguishes Zune from the ubiquitous Apple iPod. Another notable feature: Microsoft appears nowhere near the Zune brand name.”
“‘It’s very curious that Microsoft is distancing Zune from Microsoft and Windows at a time when the company is spending hundreds of millions to launch Vista, which has music as a huge part of the experience,’ said Michael Gartenberg, analyst with JupiterResearch. Vista is the operating system Microsoft is scheduled to unveil in January,” Burg reports.
Burg reports, “One reason for that strategy may be the disconnect between Microsoft’s reputation as a corporate monolith and the 18-24 hipster demographic that Zune hopes to attract…”
“‘Zune is a new brand for Microsoft. The company is not trying to distance itself, per se,’ the spokesperson said. ‘Each new product has its own brand personality.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s brand personalities:
• Windows: inelegant, counterintuitive, upside-down and backwards, insecure, fake Macintosh.
• Office: bloated suite of applications repackaged frequently with added bloat to pad company coffers.
• Zune: brown squirter (repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat) that marks Microsoft’s umpteenth try at cracking iPod+iTunes’ dominance.
• Xbox: money-losing failure that Microsoft’s PR department attempts to disguise as a success.
• MSN TV: money-losing failure that Microsoft’s PR department attempts to disguise as a success.
• PlaysForSure: failure that Microsoft’s PR department doesn’t even bother trying to disguise as a success.
• Origami UMPC: joke.
• Internet Explorer: The world’s worst and most insecure web browser. The bane of web developers everywhere.
• MS Bob: what happens when Microsoft tries to come up with an original idea.
Burg continues, “Weak consumer anticipation accompanies the Zune release. While blogs buzz with talk about what Apple’s next product might be, and backlogs for new iPods have been known to occur around peak retail times, there’s been little clamor for Zune.”
“Microsoft is working with national electronics retailers on in-store marketing strategies, but the sheer dominance of the range of iPod products guarantees that iPod will have more retail real estate,” Burg reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward S.” for the heads up.]
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