Microsoft, at a recent company meeting in Seattle, showed a spoof of Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads, featuring their Zune digital media player taking on Apple’s iPod.
Besides completely missing the central theme by having the actors state that one is a Mac and the other a PC and then quickly forgetting the whole premise by turning into just two people with MP3 players – in the actual Apple ads, the actors are playing the products (John Hodgman is a Windows PC and Justin Long is an Apple Mac) – the spoof also fails the reality test.
In Microsoft’s spoof, two actors play, ahem, people (not products) that look like Apple’s Hodgman and Long who discuss how easily iPod scratches (harking back to an ill-fated, spectacularly unsuccessful FUD campaign), how supposedly nice it is that Zune comes in brown, but mainly how Zune supposedly trumps iPod on ease-of-use and wireless song transfer.
Of course, Microsoft neglects to explain that by wirelessly transferring a song to your soon-to-be-ex-friend, you are sending them an advertisement. Songs “squirted” from Zune to Zune (as if you could ever find another Zune, that is) last for only 3 “plays” (a minute or so counts as a “play”) or 3 days before they stop playing and turn into an ad on the “squirtee’s” Zune. Do you get a commission from the music labels and Microsoft for performing this service? Nope, it’s just free advertising that you’re expected to inflict on your friends for free. Why not just go from website to website signing up your “friends” for thought-you-might-like-this spam?
The Microsoft spoof is funny, but not in the way Microsoft probably intended, because multiple independent reviews of Zune (see related articles below) have indicated just how badly the Zune software performed, how “squirting” failed, how impossible it is to find someone with a Zune to whom to squirt your time-bomb ads, and how the Zune can’t match Apple’s iPod for, among other things, “ease-of-use” especially. Of course, you can buy iTunes Store songs with just one click and you cannot buy Zune songs with one click (or any number of clicks) from your Zune player.
Microsoft should stay as far away from the “ease-of-use” issue as possible when it comes to challenging Apple. Microsoft should have taken on iPod’s lighter weight/smaller size, too many accessories, too large an online song library, too much storage capacity, too many models, too many iPod-ready vehicles from which to choose, or something else instead. Ease-of-use vs. Apple is way too large a leap for Microsoft.
The Microsoft spoof also conveniently totally ignores Apple iTunes’ “iMix” feature which, of course, allows for sharing music in a different way. With total iMixes now approaching one million in the US iTunes Store alone, it seems to be a very popular social feature; certainly vastly more popular than “squirting” 3-plays-then-self-destruct-leaving-only-an-ad-behind files like Zune.
The spoof via YouTube (some more free publicity for a doomed product):
Related articles:
Desperation time? Microsoft Zune already being discounted by retailers – December 13, 2006
Zune: Welcome to the social isolation – December 11, 2006
RealMoney.com’s Holiday Gadget Gift Guide: buy Apple iPod, avoid Microsoft Zune – December 08, 2006
Microsoft Zune plummets to 5th place in U.S. digital media player market share with 2.1 percent – December 04, 2006
Analysts: Microsoft needs to ‘rethink’ as interest in Zune fades fast – December 01, 2006
Enderle on Apple iPod vs. Microsoft Zune – November 30, 2006
The Channel Checkers: 81% recommend Apple iPod – November 30, 2006
NPD: Microsoft Zune hits 9% in US market share in first week, takes #2 spot from SanDisk [UPDATED] – November 29, 2006
Microsoft says Zune sales in line with their expectations – November 29, 2006
Newsflash: analyst says Apple iPod beating Microsoft Zune – November 28, 2006
Thurrott reviews Microsoft Zune: ‘a joke, a travesty, I can’t imagine what they were thinking’ – November 28, 2006
Apple iPod clearly immune to Zune – November 27, 2006
Zune reinforces Microsoft’s dorky image, pushes people toward Apple iPods, Macs – November 27, 2006
Ihnatko: Microsoft Zune experience about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face – November 24, 2006
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
Microsoft Zune intensifies chaos in Apple iPod+iTunes also-ran market – October 16, 2006
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
What’s in a name? ‘Zune’ a French-Canadian euphemism for penis or vagina – September 15, 2006
Crave at CNET: ‘Microsoft Zune, all the excitement that brown can bring’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune underwhelms – September 15, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft Zune ‘a design mistake’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft hypocrisy exposed with Zune: What ever happened to ‘choice?’ – September 14, 2006
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
@amyhre
Tell you what I wonder.
I wonder if Ballmer’s KIDS would disown HIM, if they ever saw Dad’s ‘developers’
video!
Soapbox, huh?
MS sure is a glutton for punishment.
“First, we’ll go after the ipod. Then You tube. Tomorrow? GOOGLE!”
This is my favorite Ballmer video ever. Brilliant!
Funny on that soapbox.msn.com site, it won’t let you close the page without asking if you really want to leave. Typical MS.
M$ can’t even come up with an original joke.
Sad bastards.
ndelc,
yes, I meant to comment on that MS “feature”.
And I agree, Young Frankensteve should be shown @ Sundance (filler between other films)
Zune and Vista.
Two more products from MicroSpoof.
Are they embarrassed about “Windows” since this is all the Zune will run on. Why didn’t they say “I’m a Mac. I’m a Windows”. Oh, now I see. Everyone is embarrassed about having to have Windows, so PC is more PC.
Where’s Zune Tang? Don’t tell me he’s not going to show up with his usual insane ramblings on a MDN story featuring Zune! Man, first the homeless guy in front of my building at work (the one who growls and barks at women in dresses) downtown disappears, now Zune Tang is MIA!
Did they have a crackdown on the mentally ill, and I didn’t hear about it?
Boy that was funny and sure to be copied too, especially since the new government copy add is almost complete.
Remember the Ballmer chant?
More developers
More developers
More developers.
The Bush add will be out starting next year. Goes like this:
More troops
More troops
More troops.
Now that MS has made the original iPod vs. Zune add you can expect the same from Bush.
Hi, I am an Iraqi with a car bomb. Hi, I am a highly trained US marine with weaponry so advanced it uses depleted uranium.
Guess which one gets to squirt the other?
Hey Road Warrior:
You seem to have lost your map. This is MacDailyNews, not The New York Times.
Maybe you should change your name to Road Wanderer.
Very Korny, the actors suck, and the music sounds like it was recorded from a baby’es toy.. Microsoft can’t take a hint that they lost and Apple won. This really shows just how much of a Sore Loser Microsoft really is.
All they got right was the white backround.
Can’t wait to see how apple will bash microsoft with their next commercials
That was truly embarrassing. That video they did a few months ago mocking themselves about “if Microsoft did the iPod packaging” was clever and funny. But this attempt is pathetic. Even the Microsoft employees watching will know how pathetic it is…
Aren’t they advocating pirating?
That video they did a few months ago mocking themselves about “if Microsoft did the iPod packaging” was clever and funny. But this attempt is pathetic.
IIRC, the video was impromptu and done from the bottom up, grassroots-style by frustrated MicroSerfs.
The spoof was obviously official, ordered “from above”, and probably percolated through team meetings. Ya gotta wonder how many PowerPoint slides were involved.
It’s proof-in-practice of the talent MS could have, and of how badly their own weight is crushing them…
MS can’t even get a spoof right??
And to think spoofs take minimal originality. Not to mention MS’s theoretic ability to pay people to do it right…
Thank God for Apple, ’cause I don’t see much sun shining on MS…
Dimebag,
Justin would never embarrass himself attempting to dance? What a stupid remark.
You know he’s an actor right? He’s not really a Mac.
He’ll embarrass himself just as much as the script tells him to…
I guess no one at Microsoft has ever heard that you can’t put lipstick on a pig.
The only way to make that piece a ‘perfect failure’ is if they went brown screen and “Got Zune?” and the end.
And you KNOW they toyed with the idea.
My fav part was the “um-chic um-chic um-chic” part.
Notice how the Zune guy didn’t ask, “How do you buy a song for your iPod” ?? He asked, “How do you get a song on your iPod.”
It’ll be fun to see how many viruses get squirted from one PC to another via Zune.
And, ZuneBoards is an astroturf site, guys. MSFT has been spreading it’s “fertilizer” all over the media, except for real life reviews.
“The big problem with this (and so many other attempts at spoof/parody ads, be they amature or professionally produced) is that they are attempting to spoof/parody humorous ads. Trying to poke fun of something that’s funny just never works and always comes across as rather pathetic.”
I for one have never seen a Mac ad spoof that’s less funny than the actual Mac ads. And there’s a lot of bad Mac ad spoofs out there. Mac addicts need to understand just how funny the rest of the world finds them to be.
MS is right, if you have a Zune, sharing is easier. iMixes don’t even count because you can’t do them there and then, and you don’t even get 3 tries before you buy.
So to say the Zune bookmark of what file do download from your friend and get to play 3 times is “Free Advertising” yet people publishing lists of songs they think you should buy is not “Free Advertising” is just dumb. Can you download the mix to your iPod, play it 3 times and then decide which songs you wnat to buy? Nope that’s not the way iMixes work. It gives you a list of songs somebody else thinks you might like to buy. That’s almost the very definition of advertising.
Apple is using the “Buy before you Try” model. Microsoft is using “Try before you Buy”. Which one will work out better? Given that most people hear a song a few times, like it then go and buy it, I’d give the win to Microsoft on this one.
Apple’s behind the 8 ball by not offering people their choice of subscription or purchase.
The overwhelming amount of music in iPods comes from CDs or P2P “All you can eat” music downloading. If “all you can eat” can be done legally, inexpensively and more conveniently, there’s a huge base of customers out there already accustomed to that model.
If every iPod owner buys an average of 23 songs per iPod from iTunes, and the average iPod lasts about 2 years before crapping out, if Apple can sell a subscription to them all for anything more than $0.95/month they will still come out ahead. And at that price renting vs buying is a no brainer.
>> Apple is using the “Buy before you Try” model. Microsoft is using “Try before you Buy”. Which one will work out better? …
iTunes has a preview of songs, also you can hear a song on the radio or other media before buying. What about Audio CDs? People often only hear one or two songs, or in some cases preview all the songs on a record shop before buying the whole album. Zune lets you do what? Try sharing an entire album with Zune sharing, how long, and how much battery is required for that? Zune is still v1, it ha a ways to mature, and you are missing a lot with your current POV.
“iTunes has a preview of songs, also you can hear a song on the radio or other media before buying. What about Audio CDs? “
Here’s the thing. All the things you said apply equally well to Zune, you can hear the songs on the radio and go buy them for your Zune too, or load them from CDs to your Zune. That’s hardly an argument for why it’s a bad feature for you to introduce your friends to your favorite new band who might not happen to be playing on the radio at just that instant.
“People often only hear one or two songs, or in some cases preview all the songs on a record shop before buying the whole album. Zune lets you do what? Try sharing an entire album with Zune sharing, how long, and how much battery is required for that? “
believe it or not, there are lots of handheld devices which use wifi and don’t drain the battery in 3 seconds.
Buying a whole album is a historical way of doing things, because that’s how songs have historically been bundled and sold. Frankly I’d rather spend a few minutes getting the album sent to me and decide which of the tracks I could be bothered buying after listening to them.
Maybe if I already knew I liked the band I’d buy the whole album.
But with an all you can eat subscription, you don’t need to take that risk, I’d happly download those tracks and make up my mind over a period of time (since the concept of buying no longer exists, you rent the store’s entire collection), whether they are deserving of space in my device.
“Zune is still v1, it ha a ways to mature, and you are missing a lot with your current POV.”
Give Microsoft their due. They came up with the first MP3 player which lets you share stuff on the fly with other people. Will it be copied by Apple? Sure. Will it become more refined in future versions? sure.
Microsoft usually kills the competition with v2 or v3 (Usually after the competition has widely derided V1 as a non-starter in the field).
What I can bet is that Apple will follow. Then half the people in this forum will believe that Apple invented wireless sharing of songs. The other half will acknowledge that Microsoft did, but claim that Apple’s way of doing it is so much better than anyone else’s.
I watched Eragon this weekend and before the film they had a Zune commercial. I thought to myself, “they should quit while they’re behind.” Saw a billboard ad on the way home on the Zune too, “Duets are better than solo performances.” Not necessarily. Maybe if you’re talking about sex, but that’s a given.
Don’t steal intellectual property; Microsoft hates competition. Probably because they have no intellect of their own.
And if I were Ballmer’s kids, I’d disown him for being a monkey. Sure kids are meant to surpass their parents, and students their teachers, but when his kids squirted out of their mother (couldn’t resist) and they’re already more intelligent than the troll holding their mother’s hand, I think I’d be saying “WTF. Please let that be a foster parent or stepdad or something.”