12-01-2006, 06:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,097
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Zune: So Close, Yet So Far
"For two days, Zune was in the top-10 products sold through Amazon and made it as high as number 2. On day three, it dropped like a rock. The first two days showed the potential the right product could have. The third showed this was a swing and a miss... Microsoft gets software and they are learning about services but Apple is the leading expert is hardware and the MP3 player market is clearly a hardware market now. Much like Apple didn't understand the power of software in the 80s Microsoft doesn't seem to grasp the importance of hardware design in the 2000s and that is very telling in this most recent battle. Much like what happened when Microsoft took on Sony with the Xbox, the Microsoft team had to really have a passion for hardware and that simply wasn't the case with Zune."
I think Rob Enderle has a point, but I think people are, in general, taking this whole thing far too seriously. Everyone built up their own expectations, and now are blaming Microsoft for not fulfilling them. Sure, the Zune is lacking in certain areas, but so is the iPod. And every other gadget you carry. The perfect Pocket PC? Camera? Phone? PMP? Ain't no such beast. Maybe Zune was a little over-hyped for what the final product turned out to be, but the hype was far less than the endless fluorescent assault I get from the iPod camp everyday. ;-) It's a first-gen product folks. Even the first-gen iPod was a dud. MS has a long-term plan for the Zune, and it's a few years too early to call it a swing and a miss.
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