“Yes, Microsoft’s new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I’ve spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face,” Andy Ihnatko writes for The Chicago Sun-Times. “‘Avoid,’ is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that’s so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.”
Ihnatko writes, “The setup process stands among the very worst experiences I’ve ever had with digital music players. The installer app failed, and an hour into the ordeal, I found myself asking my office goldfish, ‘Has it really come to this? Am I really about to manually create and install a .dll file?’ But there it was, right on the Zune’s tech support page. Is this really what parents want to be doing at 4 a.m. on Christmas morning?”
Ihnatko writes, “That might not be Zune’s fault. After about a year of operation, it’s almost as if a Windows machine develops some sort of antibodies that prevent it from recognizing new hardware. But what’s Microsoft’s excuse for everything else?”
“The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure,” Ihnatko writes. “Throw in the Zune’s tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one.”
“The iPod owns 85 percent of the market because it deserves to. Apple consistently makes decisions that benefit the company, the users and the media publishers — and they continue to innovatively expand the device’s capabilities without sacrificing its simplicity,” Ihnatko writes. “The Zune will be dead and gone within six months. Good riddance.”
Full article here.
Well now, there’s a lovely review to add to the mountain of bad reviews. This couldn’t happen to a more deserving company.
Related articles:
TheStreet.com: It’s not looking good for Microsoft’s Zune; bad press may taint brand for years – November 24, 2006
Amazon’s bestselling MP3 players list chronicles Microsoft Zune dud – November 20, 2006
Bill Gates: Apple iPod ‘phenomenal, unbelievable, fantastic’ – November 16, 2006
Cramer’s Mad Money: Microsoft’s Zune is pathetic; Vista may cause people to turn to Apple Mac – November 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune selling like snotcakes – November 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune incompatible with Windows Vista – November 14, 2006
Dvorak: ‘If anything is doomed to failure, it’s Microsoft’s Zune’ – November 14, 2006
Ballmer: Zune’s Wi-Fi will help Microsoft challenge Apple’s iPod+iTunes – November 14, 2006
CNN ridicules Microsoft’s Zune while gushing over Apple’s new iPod shuffle – November 14, 2006
Engadget: Microsoft’s Zune software: ‘It sucks’ – November 13, 2006
Early Microsoft Zune customer greeted with Zune ‘Installation Error’ – November 13, 2006
Zuned: What’s the ‘deal’ with Microsoft Points? – November 12, 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Apple has no need to worry about Microsoft’s cumbersome, chunkier Zune – November 11, 2006
BusinessWeek: ‘By this time next year, Microsoft’s Zune will be considered a dismal failure’ – November 10, 2006
USA Today’s Baig: Microsoft Zune is no Apple iPod – November 09, 2006
Forbes: Microsoft’s Zune stinks; like ‘Microsoft Bob,’ only more embarrassing – November 09, 2006
NY Times’ Pogue: Zune should come in green to match Microsoft’s iPod envy – November 09, 2006
Mossberg: MS Zune has ‘too many compromises, missing features’ vs. ‘thin, sleek, elegant’ Apple iPod – November 09, 2006
Microsoft to pay Universal for every Zune sold – November 09, 2006
Analysts: Microsoft Zune may end up being a flop – November 08, 2006
Are 58% of iPod owners really thinking of a Zune switch? – November 08, 2006
Survey: 58% of iPod owners planning another MP3 player purchase will consider Microsoft’s Zune – November 01, 2006
Zune is from Microsoft, but Microsoft doesn’t want anybody to know about it – November 07, 2006
Microsoft Zune to be US-only, no firm plans to launch anywhere else globally – November 03, 2006
Five Microsoft Zune TV commercials – November 02, 2006
JupiterResearch: Apple’s iPod will dominate for foreseeable future; Microsoft’s Zune insignificant – October 25, 2006
Ellen DeGeneres Show gives away Microsoft Zunes, studio audience goes berserk – October 23, 2006
More Microsoft Zune myths explored – October 20, 2006
Five more Microsoft Zune myths – October 18, 2006
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Newsweek Q&A: Apple CEO Steve Jobs discusses iPod’s impact, Microsoft’s Zune, and more – October 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Ballmer: Zune device not money loser, wishes Apple’s 30GB iPod was $299 instead of $249 – October 11, 2006
Microsoft’s consumer electronics track record: long string of failures – October 11, 2006
MP3.com founder: ‘Zune will be an expensive failure for Microsoft because consumers aren’t stupid’ – October 06, 2006
Microsoft fails to secure key Zune domains – October 04, 2006
Microsoft rigs Zune with tricky pricing and proprietary money schemes – October 03, 2006
Why Microsoft’s Zune won’t kill Apple’s iPod – October 03, 2006
10 Apple iPod vs. Microsoft Zune myths – October 02, 2006
Analyst: Zune could lead to ‘civil war’ between Microsoft and Windows Media partners – September 29, 2006
Thurrott on Microsoft’s Zune: ‘The makings of a disaster, what the heck are these people thinking?’ – September 29, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune’s as good as dead on arrival – September 28, 2006
Microsoft sets 30GB Zune price at $249.99 – September 28, 2006
How Microsoft’s Zune can kill Apple’s iPod – September 21, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune insanity – September 21, 2006
The Microsoft Zune 1.0 dud – September 20, 2006
Microsoft’s underwhelming Zune a ‘viral DRM’ device – September 18, 2006
SanDisk teams with RealNetworks against new common foe: Microsoft Zune – September 18, 2006
Creative does Apple’s dirty work by immediately attacking Microsoft’s Zune – September 17, 2006
Motley Fool’s Jayson: Microsoft’s ‘just plain ugly’ Zune a meager offering, not an iPod killer – September 15, 2006
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Crave at CNET: ‘Microsoft Zune, all the excitement that brown can bring’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune underwhelms – September 15, 2006
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Analyst: Microsoft Zune with fake scroll wheel ‘hardly an Apple iPod killer’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune won’t spoil Apple’s biggest iPod Christmas ever – September 14, 2006
Microsoft unveils Zune 30GB player, Zune Marketplace; declines to disclose prices – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft’s Zune an ‘underwhelming’ repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat; no threat to Apple iPod – August 30, 2006
Microsoft confirms brick-like Zune to be made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft Zune is chunky brick made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft to sell single Zune model this fall, rumors of Wi-Fi capability were greatly exaggerated – August 10, 2006
Microsoft to spend hundreds of millions, several years on Zune trying to catch Apple iPod+iTunes – July 27, 2006
Zune: Apple cannot lose. Microsoft cannot win. – July 26, 2006
Opinion: More blood on Apple iPod’s Click Wheel: Microsoft pulls plug on Zune – July 25, 2006
Just what we thought…
6 Months, i was thinking more like 3months
To quote my friend Nelson Mounce: Ha-Ha
Businessweek has a MS cover now about J Allard and his team of Zune kids…
Seriously… it’s a decent article, but they totally kiss Allard’s ass… “watch out.. the university kids will love to share songs”
yea…
right..
it’s really crack-a-lackin…
OOOOF!
There’s huge kick in the Zunes.
Brutal
Another GLOWING recommendation for the Zune… NOT.
When something brown doesn’t flush.. just keep flushing.. it’ll eventually go away..
Unlike Origami, the agony Zune will be felt for years to come. Zune will never die it will simply linger on, a constant reminder to the world how pathetic Zune actually is. Even Microsoft’s infusion of millions of dollars will do nothing but keep crippled and anemic Zune hobbling toward economic irrelevance and historical humiliation. I suppose that despondent Zune owners can meet monthly at the <strike>Zune support group</strike> social to console themselves and squirt on each other.
“Even if the track is inherently free (like a podcast) the Zune wraps it in a DRM scheme that causes the track to self-destruct after three days or three plays, whichever comes first.
After that, it’s nothing more than a bookmark for purchasing the track in the Zune Marketplace. It amounts to nothing more than free advertising.”
Ah… the so-called “innovation”!
This could be the start of a whole family of connedsumer products: the Microsoft phone aka the Fune, the Microsoft Watch2 aka the Woune, the XBox2 aka the Xune, and the Portable XBox aka the Pune. Now go squat on them domain names, quick!
This is what happens when innovation and ingenuity is not in your company’s DNA. Microsoft’s formula of copying, stealing, and re-branding just doesn’t work anymore.
An air bag will save your life, Steve Ballmer is the obvious exception. Zune, unlike an air bag, will neither protect you from public ridicule nor the inevitable disgrace of owing one nor the shame of buyer’s remorse.
Ballmer will have to wait to throw a chair until Monday after he sleeps off the turkey.
“so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity”
That is a great line!
Just checked out Amazon – iPod owns nearly all the top 10. The nearest Zune is at #21. Read the reviews on Amazon about it – nearly half had the exact same experience as in this article. Almost all of those people end their review with, “so I took it back and got an iPod, which I should have done in the first place.”
HA! Hilarious!
The real trajedy of the Zune is that Microsoft could have done much better if it had wanted to. I wish they would have designed a new player from the ground up instead of using a Toshiba Gigabeat and adding wifi features. I think it’s safe to say that Zune will be a collossal failure for Microsoft, which is too bad. If anyone has the resources to build a better iPod its Microsoft. Perhaps they have grown too large to produce anything innovative anymore.
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Montex:
You have missed the point, the failure of Zune is a consequence of both ineptitude and arrogance. Microsoft, after five years of development and its infinite wisdom, made the decision that what they had to offer was better than the iPod-iTunes hegemony. Zune is a perfect example of what occurs when uninspired technology and mediocre planning are considered preferable to the state of the art. Microsoft could not do “better”, because it is inherently a dysfunctional organization incapable of competing with Apple much less SanDisk and Creative Zen.
This is just another indication that Microsoft is failing under the leadership of that bald asshole, Steve Ballmer. Even Bill Gates called the iPod an excellent, elegant device and was ballsy enough to admit it.
The consumer market for music players belongs to Apple and will continue to do so as long as innovation thrives. The same thing is happening with the Mac market. In five years, let’s see where things are on the consumer side.
I have been using my MacBook at work, on the road as a consultant, DEVELOPING applications in PARALLELS in Windows. Every IT person that sees this is in awe. One head of IT told me that when Panther hits the market, if he had his way he’d set up an Xserve server cluster running both OSX and Windows so users had the benefits of both.
So what does that tell you about what direction Microsoft is heading in???
The Zune will be Microsoft’s biggest failure. Period.
Montex’s quote: “If anyone has the resources to build a better iPod its Microsoft. Perhaps they have grown too large to produce anything innovative anymore.”
“…. anymore.” ANYMORE? WHEN did they EVER produce anything innovative. NEVER. Not the Widows look, not Vista, not Zune, NOTHING. EVER.
As Steve Jobs himself put it about Microsoft spending $5 billion a year on research and development, “yet these days all they seem to be able to do is try to copy Google and Apple.”
Maybe the spend 5 Million paying scouting spys or paying the salary of double agents at Google and Apple.
Apple should use that “excellent, elegant device” Bill Gates quote about the iPod in their advertising.
Wouldn’t that put the wind up MS!
In related music news, I saw Kylie in concert last weekend – she was absolutely AWESOME! Wow! Her singing voice has improved out of sight – the crowd went completely nuts and she rewarded us with three encores!
If you’re coming to Australia in the next month, snap up tickets to to few remaining shows (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide) – you’ll be glad you did!
I think this guy summed the Zune up nicely.
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I was wrong. I thought that the zune was going to kill off the also-rans like Sandisk and Creative in the MP3 player world, and maybe show the suckers who’d slgned up for that “plays for sure” scam that jumping on a microsoft bandwagon was just not a wise move.
Turns out that Microsoft has attempted to screw their PFS partners, and won’t even break even on this debacle. If Zune is remembered at all, it will be a business-school case study on how an enormous company screwed the pooch when attempting to extend their monopoly to a new market.
-jcr
Ferf,
Zune is far from being Microsoft’s biggest failure. Their biggest failure was Longhorn, which they had to abandon after spending billions of dollars. To save face, they’re shipping a service pack called “vista”, and pretending that it’s a major OS update.
-jcr
not only does this add to Microsoft’s disgrace, but all these Zune reviews continually compliment the iPod’s simplicity. Prediction: record iPod sales for Christmas, and record iPod sales after Christmas when all the parents who thought the Zune was cool replace it for an iPod at the demands of their crying children.
Title of the article is “Avoid the loony Zune”
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Check out Ihnatko’s Flickr page, too, for unrestrained belly laughs (user name andyi).
Pure hilarity!!
I love Andy Ihnatko!