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  #11 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 06:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by inteller View Post
But who wants to spend their christmas day installing a firmware that should have shipped with the device?
Get used to it, this is becoming the norm. iPhone 2.0 shipped unusable until you plugged it in to download the firmware, and they have already come out with 2 point releases.
 
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  #12 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 01:09 PM
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Originally Posted by MarxMarvelous View Post
Actually, we have no idea what it will cost and that's a key piece to the puzzle. If they price it the same as the iPod Classic 80 would it suddenly make sense?
If this 120 gb Zune comes out at the same price as the 160 gb iPod classic that would be one more nail in the coffin. So if they are going to do something as dumb as release a like minded mp3 player with 40 less gb they better come out with one hell of an update for the firware. Maybe Zune Marketplace downloading through wifi, Zune pass on the go would help them maintain their footing, otherwise they are doomed for failure.
 
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  #13 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 04:19 PM
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Default MSFT isn't that stupid

My guess is the Zune 120 will be at the same price point as the Zune 80. The Zune 80 will get a nice price cut. They also need an Ipod shuffle competitor, and they need to get that damn Zune client out for Windows Mobile and S60. They also need a Zune Touch Device out this year to keep up with Apple.

Combine these with a killer V3 update in November and some tighter integration with the Xbox and you might actually have something.
 
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  #14 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 07:01 PM
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After your parting video rant, I was honestly hoping you'd really do what you said you'd do and leave the Zune behind. In your video it's pretty clear you don't understand technology lifecycles, marketing, or business in any way. You attained your 15 minutes of fame by making a spectacle of yourself, not for your knowledge about the Zune. If you insist in coming in here and trashing the Zune and the Zune team, I'll have to answer...

Quote:
Originally Posted by mszunefan View Post
1.) Zune Insider was not the first to tell us of this...way to keep up Cesar.
FCC filings are not product announcements - they're essentially product leaks that seem to happen when companies don't file the right documents to keep the tests private.

Let's say Cesar was to say "Hey guys, we have a 120 GB Zune coming...but I can't tell you anything about it other than the fact that it's 120 GB." You know full well he'd be raked across the coals for that - Microsoft will announce the Zune 120 when they're ready to talk about it. And, historically, Zune Insider hasn't been a place for new product announcements, at least not things that are up on Zune.net first.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mszunefan View Post
2.) Its 40 gbs less than its competitor and will most likely be in black only. Also with no features this looks like nothing more than a struggle from a dying animal.
I agree that it's not a good thing for the Zune to not match the size of the biggest iPod, but I think it's a very good thing that they only have ONE size for the hard-drive based Zune. When the Zune 80 came out, it had the highest-capacity hard drive that was available on the market that fit into the thickness they designed. It looks like now that same thickness can accommodate a 120 GB drive, so we get a 50% boost in storage but the Zune stays compatible with all the accessories for the Zune 80. That's critical.

What happens if Microsoft were to release a thicker Zune with a bigger hard drive? All the accessory makers groan because they have to make new accessories for the thicker Zune - that's not a big problem for the market-leading iPod, but when you're the "little guy" in the market you don't want to give your partners any excuse to give up on your product. If you make things difficult, or increase their customer service costs, they might walk away from your product.

As for the colour, why wouldn't it be at least black and red like the Zune 80 is now? And why do you think it will have no new features? We don't know that, because the FCC documents don't tend to talk about features, they just talk about specifications. If this is just a new product in the current generation of Zunes, a Zune 120 identical to the Zune 80 in every way but size, then maybe it won't have any new features. Or maybe it's part of a new generation of products that will have new features? We don't know.

As for your "struggle of a dying animal comment", that's just pure ignorance talking. You seem to think that consumer technologies should come out with new versions every six months or something. What planet does that happen on? The 2nd gen Zune came out in November 2007. There were a few minor software/firmware updates until the spring, when they release a very big software & firmware update that added new features, fixed a lot of bugs, etc.

There are rumours about something new coming in the fall - we don't know what it is, but it's clear that the Zune team continues to move the product forward on a regular basis. No one launches a product then four to six months later launches a new version of that product - that just isn't done, and for you to expect that shows your ignorance of how things really work.
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  #15 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 07:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by inteller View Post
MS had a killer device with the Zune30, but they have managed to squander every technical advantage by piece mealing this on a shoestring budget.
You thought the Zune 30 was killer? I'd say it was just barely "OK". It wasn't bad, but the desktop software sucked bad, and the device itself was pretty hefty. I'd say the Zune reached "killer" status in the spring of this year. With the 2.5 software, I have no reservations about suggesting the Zune to iPod owners.
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  #16 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 07:08 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mszunefan View Post
Wow somehow you made a post that makes no sense and adds nothing to the argument. Why wouldn't you want an extra 40 gb when most likely it will cost the same?
Why would you think that a 160 GB hard drive would cost the same as a 120 GB hard drive? If you go into a store and look at the price of a 300 GB hard drive and a 500 GB hard drive, are they the same price? No.

It's entirely possible that, due to sales volume, Apple can get the 160 GB hard drive for the same price that Microsoft can get the 120 GB hard drive for, and for Microsoft to match the price of the iPod Classic they have to price it in the middle of the iPod 80 GB and the iPod 160 GB - like $299 USD or something similar.

Never underestimate what the power of a market leader can to do make it very difficult for anyone else to compete with them.
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  #17 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 07:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mszunefan View Post
If this 120 gb Zune comes out at the same price as the 160 gb iPod classic that would be one more nail in the coffin.
You finally said something sensible! Yes, if they price the Zune 120 at $349 USD, that would be pretty foolish. But there's $100 price spread between the iPod 80 GB and the iPod 160 GB, and in the consumer market, $100 is a LOT of room to play. As I said in another post, they could do $299 and it might work...or what if the Zune 120 was $249 and the Zune 80 dropped to $199...or even stopped being made altogether? There are LOTS of options for Microsoft here.
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  #18 (permalink)  
Old 08-19-2008, 08:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn View Post
You thought the Zune 30 was killer? I'd say it was just barely "OK". It wasn't bad, but the desktop software sucked bad, and the device itself was pretty hefty. I'd say the Zune reached "killer" status in the spring of this year. With the 2.5 software, I have no reservations about suggesting the Zune to iPod owners.

when it came out in 2006, it had RDS radio and the ability to exchange songs wirelessly. Those were some killer features, but they have managed to squander that, as you say with crappy software and slow firmware updates. The technical underpinnings of the Zune 30 (and the new ones too) is pretty impressive....they dont fully take advantage of all the hardware for sure.
 
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  #19 (permalink)  
Old 08-21-2008, 12:52 AM
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First off Jason Dunn you like to hear yourself type. Second off, just because I said I would no longer support the Zune full steam like I have been for over a year doesn't mean I am still not interested in the PMP market.

Thirdly, to expect a company who is fighting one of the biggest product monopolies on this planet to maybe not keep everything secret and share with us their "master plan" might not be a bad idea. They have take a great product line and slowly drug it to its near death. They will have to pull a magic trick of a zune out of their butt to make it past this Holiday season and a 120 gb Zune isn't the magic trick they need.
 
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  #20 (permalink)  
Old 08-21-2008, 03:28 AM
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i really think there needs to be a Zune client for windows mobile phones. Windows media player mobile is looking really loooong in the tooth. I was loking at the Treo Pro (which I'll probably buy anyways) and thinking "if this thing had a slick media client on it, it would be flying off shelves."

if unicode doesn't make it into v3 firmware I'm through.
 
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