“Who in his right mind would step into the ring against the iPod? Apple Computer’s sleek music-player, and its iTunes software and online store, dominate the digital-music industry as comprehensively as Microsoft’s Windows operating system dominates desktop computing. But just as Apple has tried for years to loosen Microsoft’s grip on computing, so Microsoft now hopes to loosen Apple’s hold on digital music. On November 14th, the software giant will launch Zune, a music-player that looks and works very much like an iPod,” The Economist reports.
The Economist reports, “Zune is unlikely ‘to make any dent at all in Apple’s market share,’ says Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, a consultancy in Silicon Valley. But Microsoft probably has no choice but to try, he adds. During its first 25 years, he says, Microsoft succeeded above all by bringing computer technology to businesses; to succeed in its next 25 years, it must turn its attention to consumer gadgets, for that is where the innovation and growth will be. But the formula with which Microsoft achieved its dominance in the first round appears not to be working in the second. So Zune is based on a very different business model-evidence that Microsoft is changing.”
“The Zune device does not work with other online stores, even those of Microsoft’s partners; and Zune Marketplace does not offer songs for non-Zune devices. Zune, in other words, is a proprietary bundle of hardware, software and service-exactly like Apple’s iPod-iTunes combination,” The Economist reports. “For Microsoft this amounts to an about-face shocking enough that Robbie Bach, the executive who runs the company’s entertainment division and who devised the strategy, goes out of his way to play down its importance.”
The Economist reports, “Microsoft has ditched the idea of providing enabling software to other firms in favour of Apple’s approach of doing everything itself. Its first move in this direction came with its Xbox games consoles, in which hardware, software and an online service are tightly coupled. (The Xbox division also reports to Mr Bach.) Zune is much more controversial, however, because Microsoft’s pre-existing hardware and service partners are left high and dry. ‘I’ve never seen a business so blatantly screw its business partners,’ says Peter Sealey, a professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Analyst: Zune could lead to ‘civil war’ between Microsoft and Windows Media partners – September 29, 2006
In wake of Zune announcement, should ex-Microsoft ‘partners’ join iPod ecosystem? – July 27, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft partners zune to be the biggest losers – July 25, 2006
In wake of Zune, Microsoft ‘partners’ consider abandoning PlaysForSure – July 25, 2006
To Sputnik,
You do know that one of those inept MS partners in music was Dell.
I guess that was the final straw for MS when Dell stopped making the ditty.
Microsoft Watcher,
Grammatically, Prof. Sealey’s statement doesn’t exclude MS’s past or his having observed it.
I thought the best line in the article was this one:
“The great irony of the epic rivalry between Apple and Microsoft, says Mr Bajarin, is that the longer they fight, the more they resemble each other.”
How true….
Microsoft: the cancer of IT.
“‘I’ve never seen a business so blatantly screw its business partners,’ says Peter Sealey, a professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.””
he only watches family films then
Tried a Zune today at Bestbuy. First zune wouldn’t start up properly and only showed me a flashing icon (sorry forgot wh the icon was)
The second Zune flashed a “plug” and I waited and waited.
Waited , nothing happened and then walked away.
Came back and it was finally on. maybe 2 minutes, waiting for this thing to come on. I played with the menu a bit and watched a video. Not a bad device, but nothing to really differentiate itself from the other 15 players on the table.
The menu navigation was responsive. when this thing gets a cool design, ala XBOX360, it should do better than it will with it’s current design, it’s fugly.
I’ll be looking forward to my Apple cell phone in the next year, can’t wait.
Good luck Zune, you’ll need it.
Microsoft can wait as long as it wants for the Zune to go somewhere, what with all that cash that they have. When the first iPod came out, many thought that no one would buy one for the cost of the thing and all. Look where that one landed. Well time will tell whether the zune will go somewhere, but you can bet MSFT will wait quite a while before it gives it up.
The success at integrating its own market should bear better fruit than the previous models of everyone trying to get their players to work with anothers supplier of media, and the hassles that that creates.
MSFT is really screwing its parters though.
Now we just need someone to write all the software that one can get for windows, to work on the mac. Then we can really truly switch.
Monkey boy see, monkey boy do.
The reason some companies have success is that they have an original idea and pursue it with passion.
Whereas Microsoft strives for mediocrity and tries to copy whatever else has been successful.
“The great irony of the epic rivalry between Apple and Microsoft, says Mr Bajarin, is that the longer they fight, the more they resemble each other.”
The Economist Newspaper.
No, I think Apple and Micro$oft are pretty much polar opposites actually.
Zune is too late. MS needs to try to innovate instead of just copying successful products. Oh…wait…Origami. After second thought, they should just return the money to the shareholders.
‘I’ve never seen a business so blatantly screw its business partners,’ says Peter Sealey, a professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.”
but seriously:
“…PlaysForSure concept, a brilliant strategy by Microsoft that was unfortunately hampered by inept partners either unable or incapable of following Microsoft’s precise specifications.”
When has micro$oft ever been capable of giving precise specifications on anything? I mean, how can they? Sure the spec might SOUND precise, but ALWAYS once you start looking at it more closely there are massive logic holes, and grey areas. Kind of like Sputnik himself
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Where’s David Fester? He was so high on choice.
what happened to Oragami? That was MS’s only innovative product i’ve ever heard of…
The most important aspect of “mafiasoft” strategy is that every partner know what they do and still partner with them. Look Novell deal. Red Hat refuse the deal and that every company should do.
With Sputnik back, if it is the “real IT” Sputnik, I’m having that feeling of “deja zune”. (the feeling I’ve been shat on before)
Sputnik – you crack me up, you are so cruel but so so sooooo funny.
– Steven, Braeburn, mark and trollin’ –
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do yourself a ‘flavour’,
go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm
Go back and re read Sputnik’s post again.
cos he ain’t wot youse thought e wos.
Zune is fading already.
On Tues late afternoon (the day it was introduced), Amazon had Zune at 5 (black), 15 (brown), and 24 (white) on the mp3 top sellers. These were the peak spots on the chart for it since I started keeping tabs a week before the intro.
As of now, Zune has slipped back to 8 (black), 21 (brown), and 39 (white) on the mp3 top sellers.
During this period, iPod has continued to hold the top 3 spots with 30GB black Gen 5.5, 2GB silver, 80GB black Gen 5.5. In fact, the 30GB black has moved from 2 to 1 on the electronics top sellers, passing the Canon SD600.
Zune is fading. The watch is over. We’ll have to wait until the next Zune release to see if it will really be an iPod killer!
“what happened to Oragami? That was MS’s only innovative product i’ve ever heard of…”
Still available. Sony sells one.
“Zune is fading. The watch is over. We’ll have to wait until the next Zune release to see if it will really be an iPod killer!”
Still the black Zune is and has been consistantly more popular than the White iPods.
Microsoft doesn’t expect to take out Apple in one hit. For now the’re probably just happy to be outselling white 30GB iPods.
If you stick with ranking latest generation 30GB HDD based players the order as of now goes:
Black iPod
Black Zune
White iPod
Black Zen M
Brown Zune
Black Zen W
White Zune
Other Zens.
Black U2 iPod
Seems to matter more whether the player is black than whether it’s a iPod…
“Was he talking about Steve cancelling the Mac Clone licenses?”
Not the same thing. With the Mac clone making deal, Apple was licensing to partners who became competitors taking marketshare from Apple.
With PFS, MS wasn’t licensing anything to its partners that would make them competitors taking marketshare of any kind from MS. Until Zune, MS wasn’t in either the music player or the online music selling business.
“The Zune runs on a Mac through Boot Camp or Parallels. Within a few years that will be the only way to get ANY software for the Mac not made by Apple.”
Many have voiced similar opinions/fears since Apple announced the switch to Intel, but all facts relating to Mac software supports the opposite. Since the Intel switch, more and more Mac-only software is appearing. Even MS is busy trying to crank out the Intel Mac version of Office. Not to mention Adobe.
“Apple was licensing to partners who became competitors taking marketshare from Apple.”
That’s a silly argument for why screwing them would be OK. Apple knew that that they would take market share from Apple when they signed them up.
Apple’s actions were much worse than Microsoft’s. Those guys were screwed because their Mac businesses were totally destroyed by Apple’s actions. At least Plays For Sure is not being killed off, it’s just not being supported on Zune.
“Even MS is busy trying to crank out the Intel Mac version of Office. Not to mention Adobe.”
These are major apps from major vendors and even then these will simply replace and update existing products. That doesnt count as “more and more Mac-only software” and probably they’re the last native Mac iterations of these products. What’s more telling is what a lack of urgency Microsoft and Adobe seem to have had in producing these versions.
AppleScrewsPartners:
I disagree – Apple paid Power Computing $100 million for their licence to produce Macintosh clones. If this is a bad deal, please rip me off one day. The PlaysForSure competitors of the Zune leave the table with huge investment losses and no goodwill (transferred to the Zune).
There is always space for developers to compete with a Microsoft or Apple in the same space. You just have to make it cheaper and better, plus have an import function.
“If this is a bad deal, please rip me off one day”
How much does Apple make out of Macs, or other companies make out of IBM PC clones today?
You tell me if $100 million carrot to shut down your company and go away (coupled with the stick, you can’t license the latest version on any terms, so if you don’t say Yes, you’re going out of business anyway in the long term) sounds fair.
From where I stand, here’s the list of best selling mp3 players on Amazon.com
1 Apple 30 GB iPod video Black (5.5 Generation)
2 Apple 2 GB iPod Nano Silver (2nd Generation)
3 Apple 80 GB iPod Video 5.5 Generation (Black)
4 SanDisk SDMX4-2048 Sansa e250 2 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot
5 Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Pink (2nd Generation)
6 Apple 8 GB iPod Nano Black (2nd Generation)
7 Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Silver (2nd Generation)
8 Apple 1 GB Shuffle Metal (2nd Generation)
9 SanDisk Sansa M240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver)
10 Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Black
11 Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Green (2nd Generation)
12 Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Black)
13 Apple 30 GB iPod video White (5.5 Generation)
14 Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Blue (2nd Generation)
15 Apple 60 GB iPod video Black (5th Generation)
16 SanDisk Sansa M230 512 MB MP3 Player (Blue)
17 SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)
18 SanDisk Sansa M250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)
19 Creative Zen Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black)
20 Apple 80 GB iPod video White (5.5 Generation)
A baker’s dozen of Apples to one, pitiful Zune….
“That’s a silly argument for why screwing them would be OK.”
No, it’s called survival of your business, and it’s simply stupid to keep doing something that’s losing you business.
“Apple knew that that they would take market share from Apple when they signed them up. “
Again…no.
Apple would never have agreed to Mac cloning if your assertion were true. Why would Apple have agreed to do such a thing? It would have served no rational purpose.
The purpose of Mac clonering was to expand the Macintosh market. The cloners failed to do this (and the responsibility for that failure lies strictly with them, not Apple).
Besides, as I recall, none of the Mac cloners actually went out completely out of business due to Apple killing the clone licenses. Those that weren’t already involved in it, went into the PC business.