At this stage everyone has heard of the new Zune media device from Microsoft. A bit of a buzz has been generated about yet another device aimed at the iPod generation. However, a greater buzz has surrounded the focus on DRM and the device. Many stories including imcompatibility of already purchased music with the device making end-users suffer have plagued the device’s publicity. The story of Zune points that will be used to purchase music, is a little too detached from reality. It may have worked for Disneyland but consumers these days are far more concerned with actual monetary value. Some even say that you will always have Zune points left over from a purchase encouraging you to buy more, given the way the purchasing system appears to work. It’s all very much set against the end-user. Interesting that I should find a like-minded thinker on this matter through the archives of Boing Boing: Andy Ihnatko, in the Chicago Sun-Times has called Zune a “complete, humiliating failure”. Indeed this is one player that the music industry truly wrote the blueprint for. source: Boing Boing
I am curious to see how the Zune competes with others in the market. Will the Zune dominate like their O/S?
It’s difficult to say for sure. However, unlike the OS manufactured by the maker they have entered the market at the last minute with the Zune. The OS emerged when people had little choice in an OS for the average human and as such was favoured greatly by consumers. Now, however, the Zune is probably the last player to enter the market and comes with a pile of restrictions that has caught the eye of the media for all the wrong reasons. I think that the bad publicity will effect the initial take-up and the licencing issues associated with the DRM used will probably not help either. I guess we’ll just have to watch and see.