The end of Microsoft’s Zune?
The Zune, Microsoft’s portable music player, is rumored to be laying to rest. It couldn’t cut into Apple’s iTunes and iPod sales, and has even received few support amongst mp3 buyers. (Thanks to HaveBoard for extra help on this blog)
As a musician, we’re seeing a big change in landscape from media, to digital. The Napster era launched a new format, and now we’re seeing the effects of it in the entire music marketplace. Which is why the end of the Zune is a big story.
The Financial Times recently learned from CEO Steve Ballmer of the Zune’s state. Perhaps there’ll put their resources towards SongSmith, or incorporate it into a do-all system that they create.
In a world of WiFi, WiMax, EVDO, and more – an mp3 player seemed to be doomed that entered late into the market. The iPod came out on October 23, 2001, whereas the Zune entered on November 14, 2006. But Apple, had something that all these other mp3 players don’t – the software:
It’s a common tactic – loss leaders. Lose money on the iPod, but then gain it on the mp3 sales.
5 years is alot of jump time, and that alone could have spelled the doom for Microsoft. In addition, Apple had better user feedback and a better marketing campaign than Microsoft Zune, too. In fact, even Rhapsody was planning on coming out with an mp3 player, too.
All of this at a time where only a few short months ago Microsoft announced plans for a Zune with more WiFi options and bigger hard drives.
No problem Walt. Just helped with a few grammatical corrections. No big deal. This news does _not_ surprise me.
No surprise here either. I think Zune could have been better if it played all formats. Someone should make a player that plays virtually every audio format. For instance the ipods play lossless, but they don’t play FLAC. That REALLY disappointments me.
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