03-06-2007, 01:31 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Steven Levy Disappointed He Couldn't Find More Than One Zune
"A few weeks ago, Newsweek technology columnist Steven Levy spoke to a group of Microsoft employees about the iPod and the book he wrote about Apple's music player. During his talk, Levy pulled out his Zune, the new pocket music and video player that Microsoft hopes will give the iPod some competition. One thing a Zune can do that iPods can't is use built-in Wi-Fi to find and swap songs with other nearby Zunes. It's Microsoft's attempt to introduce that MySpace digital community vibe to the world of portable media players. But guess what? Even in an auditorium full of Microsofties, Levy's Zune couldn't find another Zune to talk to. Levy wrote on his blog that when he told the crowd that his Zune was feeling lonely, one person eventually popped up and sent him a song. It made me wonder: If the people who make and sell the Zune aren't buying into the music-player community idea, what's the chance that the rest of us will?"
While Ric Manning's points later in this article about the things that the Zune does well (big screen) and not so well (song sharing limitations) are all accurate and fair, it's become a popular hobby for the media to bash the wireless sharing feature without actually thinking it through. In the example with Levy, the first key question to ask is why would Microsoft staff members (we don't know how many exactly) bring their Zunes with them to a presentation? I sure don't carry my Zune with me everywhere. And, better yet, why would they have them turned on, unless they were ignoring Levy? What so many people seem to forget is that the Zune needs to be turned on in order to send or receive wirelessly, just like every other electronic device that uses wireless. And let's not forget that we're talking about a device that's been on sale for just coming up on four months now - it's still early-on. There's lots of room for improvement, to be sure, but judging the success or failure of the Zune on a room full of Microsoft employees seems rather silly to me.
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