Zune reinforces Microsoft’s dorky image, pushes people toward Apple iPods, Macs

“In a lot of ways, I’m a good example of why a lot of people are predicting a surge for Apple products in the next few months. In fact — and true Apple-heads will hate to hear this — they look ready to become the one thing that no one expected — mainstream,” C.W. Nevius blogs for SFGate.com.

MacDailyNews Take: Would “true Apple-heads” really hate it if Apple went “mainstream” and kept their quality and drive to innovate? What would be bad about the world increasing their productivity and lessening their stress and frustration at the hands of Windows? We don’t love Apple Macs because they’re not as widely used as Windows PCs, we love them because they’re better. We hope every personal computer user figures it out, too.

Nevius continues, “The reason, I think, is a little unexpected — iPod. With a little help from Microsoft’s wannabe music player, Zune. Zune, just out in time for Christmas, is not only getting some lukewarm reviews, it is reinforcing Microsoft’s worst image problems. Either the Micro-guys are clueless dorks — Zune is as expensive as iPod, bulkier, and is neither as easy to work as iPod nor as cool. Or, worse yet, the boys up north are malicious bullies.”

Nevius writes, “Bill Gates must grind his teeth every time one of those TV commercials comes on depicting the cool and very chill Apple guy talking to the doofus “PC,” with his baggy khaki pants and Gates-like horn-rim glasses. But Microsoft has managed to create its own version [Zune].”

“Sure, the iPod a great product, but that’s not the point here. There are ramifications that extend beyond the cool factor of walking around with hip white earphones. Whether Apple meant to or not, they created the ideal stalking horse for the rest of its line,” Nevius writes. “In other words, if a duffer like me bought an iPod (and I did) and if he not only loved the product, but the ease of use and terrific design (and I did), then I might start thinking about buying other, larger Apple products, like a laptop or desktop computer now that my old PC is starting to become outdated (and I am.) It is the long-awaited, much-predicted, and until now not-happening surge in ‘mom and pop’ Apple buying. Older buyers, who still control the bulk of the buying power in America, are starting to look at Apple as a dependable, well-designed alternative to a PC.”

“The response to the Zune, which was supposed to be ‘the iPod killer,’ only convinces me that I am right. Microsoft is probably being hurt by those TV ads which portray them as a doofus. So they went out and proved it by introducing a much-ballyhooed product that only reinforces the image,” Nevius writes. “Squirt that.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: “Ignorance Lag” really is ending.

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