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Microsoft Releases Zune Details

hmmmm.

Don't know what to think about it. I have to admit it did give me pause a bit. The GUI looks pretty decent. The brown...Oh the humanity. It looks clunky and big.

What is going to make it sell is the marketing. If M$ throws a ton of dough at making it look appealing, Apple could have a battle on thier hands.

My iPod is a 15 gigger G2 (there, I said it), and it's full. I was dissapointed that there was no full screen iPod offering at the keynote cuz I was going to buy one immediately. Now, I'm gonna have to settle for the 80Gb.

I suspect that the Zune is going to wow ALOT of people. Hopefully Apple will get on the ball and blow it away, because at first glance I hate to admit, Zune won this first round overall me thinks.
 
Lotus11 said:
Don't know what to think about it. I have to admit it did give me pause a bit. The GUI looks pretty decent. The brown...Oh the humanity. It looks clunky and big.

What is going to make it sell is the marketing. If M$ throws a ton of dough at making it look appealing, Apple could have a battle on thier hands.

My iPod is a 15 gigger G2 (there, I said it), and it's full. I was dissapointed that there was no full screen iPod offering at the keynote cuz I was going to buy one immediately. Now, I'm gonna have to settle for the 80Gb.

I suspect that the Zune is going to wow ALOT of people. Hopefully Apple will get on the ball and blow it away, because at first glance I hate to admit, Zune won this first round overall me thinks.
Click to expand...

But.... wait to you see the software. They have won round two, too.
 
Battery Life?

F*** Viruses and the like, the nastiesness of the design, the software etc....
Considering the population penetration of the iPod and what m$ hopes to gain from the market, does no-one think that with wi-fi battery life & so many potential users (hypothetically!) battery life would be non-existant?

ps. Knowing nothing about battery drain vs. no. of users is this a correct question?
 
I has a pretty good design. Looks a lot better then the previous pictures I saw. I too am curious about battery life with the wi-fi unit. I just hope for bluetooth in an upcoming iPod for headphones.
 
Looks aren't everything.....you know!

mahonmeister said:
I has a pretty good design. Looks a lot better then the previous pictures I saw. I too am curious about battery life with the wi-fi unit. I just hope for bluetooth in an upcoming iPod for headphones.
Click to expand...

Moreso what I was aiming at is.... is that if everyone and their dog has an iPod these days (supposedly!) has an iPod, a Zune with wi-fi would lethally cripple a potential Zune audience?
 
Sky Blue said:
Brown???
Click to expand...


Yes it's offered in brown... How appropriate...


Also I do have to agree on WMP11's new look. It's stunning. I don't know who Microsoft hired to do their new UI stuff (Windows Vista UI, WMP11) but they are doing a damn good job in my opinion. I actually really dig the "glass" (Areo or whatnot) in Vista. I really hope Apple is going to be completely unique with Leopard (and that iTunes 7 isn't a sneak peak of the new UI).
 
Well, it's about time! I must admit, I'm liking a lot of the features being shown on the Zune. And the full HD Movie service sounds very nice.

I'm subconsciously hoping the Zune takes out a chunk of the iPod's market share (not too much, of course:) ). Apple needs a smack in the face and to keep the creative juices flowing into the iPod.:p
 
I do not see a whole lot that diferenciates this from iPods (et al), other than brown and wi-fi. Does not seem like there is a whole lot the wi-fi can do. It'd be something if zume had been widescreen or something- that would have gotten my attention. Or maybe a deal with Zume and UnBox. But as it sits, nothing exciting...
 
dashiel said:
how on god's green earth are they going to do HD on a screen that only supports 320x240. answer: they aren't.
Click to expand...

Exactly. This thing really offers precious little in the way of anything new, so I don't really see this pushing the iPod any at all at this point.

I mean, a lame wi-fi sharing feature that only allows a song to be played 3 times is practically useless to most people. And FM tuners have been around in WMA players for a long time (and Apple offers one as an add-on). I don't see any innovation whatsoever here from Microsoft and innovation is the only thing that will ever push Apple in any meaningful way.
 
OS X Support

To cut into Apple's market share, it would seem as though MS would want the Zune to work with OS X. The problem with this is that the Zune requires Windows Media Player, and MS hasn't released a version of WMP lately.

So.. Do you think that MS is working on a version of WMP for OS X, or do you think that they are not worrying about supporting the OS X with zune? Or is there another solution to supporting Zune with OS X?
 
I actualy like ipod kilers, they always end up dead and the ipod is still kicking :p


the white zune looks like the first bulky ipod 4gb, the black one looks more like a power brick, and don't get me started on the ***** brown one :rolleyes:

that's it M$ just keep telling yoursellf that money isn't a problem as creative or IBM pc :D :cool:
 
timswim78 said:
So.. Do you think that MS is working on a version of WMP for OS X, or do you think that they are not worrying about supporting the OS X with zune? Or is there another solution to supporting Zune with OS X?
Click to expand...
Well, with them dropping IE support, dropping Windows Media Player support (suggesting you use Flip4Mac instead), bad MSN support (from what I've heard), I would be very surprised if they offered any Mac support.
 
Seriously, I don't think this has what it takes to affect the iPod market dramatically. (unless they lower the price tremendously) None of it's features are amazing or so innovative to make an person switch, IMO.

Upon the release of the 30/80GB iPods on Tuesday alot of people were uninspired to trade up their current iPods, and that's having the assurance of compatibility, extra space, brighter screen, etc.

Now take all the people that have iPods, and tell them that they need to use a completely new system. That the capacity is not any better, and in fact worse due to the lack of anything bigger than 30GB. That it's bigger and heavier. The .5" of screen is not going to do it.

Unless the Zune oozes some kind of mind altering chemical, it'll be really hard to switch millions of people over.

I do hope this pushes Apple to release the next iPod soon, and not in a year.
 
I'm glad Microsoft has come up with a good looking media player. It looks like they put a lot of thought into the interface to try to compete with Apple - just means the next iPod will be that much cooler.
 
timswim78 said:
To cut into Apple's market share, it would seem as though MS would want the Zune to work with OS X. The problem with this is that the Zune requires Windows Media Player, and MS hasn't released a version of WMP lately.

So.. Do you think that MS is working on a version of WMP for OS X, or do you think that they are not worrying about supporting the OS X with zune? Or is there another solution to supporting Zune with OS X?
Click to expand...

I think there are more Windows users who own iPods than there are Mac users who have iPods (or mac users in general.) I don't think MS is so worried about convering cult-of-mac people to Zune, as much as they're interested in converting people who just want something interesting, new, cheap (yet to be seen), and easy to use (also yet to be seen.) Also, getting those people who haven't yet bought into the MP3/mulitmedia device market is probably a prime target for MS and Zune.

Ultimately, I don't think MS really has to worry about making Zune compatible with OSX period. Who knows though? Most mac people I know would never consider getting something made by MS. I, on the other hand, come from both sides, so while I love my iPod video and my Shuffle, I'm also very interested in seeing what Zune can do.
 
This is a joke right?

Before anyone mentions the XBox, they need to remember that video game consoles are closed systems.

Music on the other hand, apart from the minority of people who buy from the iTMS, is open. You can load any CD you want onto a portable player and many people illegally download music in open formats. Despite what people say, there is simply not the same opportunity for lock in with digital music, at least not for the foreseeable future.

Microsoft were lucky with the XBox in that their main competitor seems to be in the process of destroying itself as a company. However, even given that, the XBox is a minority interest in Asia, even if it did beat the PS3 to market.

Other than that, and with the exception of the wireless, the Zune is simply a rebranded former "iPod killer". Jesus... they couldn't even come up with a decent name for the thing. It's not even anywhere near as good as Creative's stuff.

And they were too dumb to go after the mini/nano market first, which is where all the sales are.

And it is reputedly $50 more expensive than the iPod.

And brown? The iPod looks like a piece of futuristic cool tech, not my grandpa's wallet.

Oh God....

Apple's campus must be a fun place to be today. I imagine that one would have to walk all the way to the end of the car parks to no longer hear the laughter.

This is pathetic. The only people who are going to buy them are saps, and those people who "don't want an iPod because everyone else has them" (i.e. idiots).

One can only hope for Microsoft's sake that they have some new designs coming out that are radically different. Otherwise Apple's reported fullscreen pod will kill the Zune as it stands.

As for the wifi. I'm betting it isn't as cool as it sounds. Either you will be able to transfer over any song for the 3 day limit, or you will only be able to transfer DRMed and "open" songs (which have no limit).

That means that the Zune is either going to be a pirate's delight, or it won't let you transfer over non DRMed music (except "home" recordings). If the former, the music companies will go septic, if the latter, consumers will.

They really needed to do better than this. The only reason this has any chance at all is that it has Microsoft's advertising money behind it. As I said above, Creative has been making players that are better than the Zune, and they haven't managed to put a dent in Apple's marketshare. Microsoft can't out Google Google, and they can't – on the basis of this subpar effort – do anything to Apple.
 
Brown? What were they thinking?

I could see it now. He mom the dog just took a crap on the floor. No dear, that's the Zune...

What's with the name Zune anyways? You think they could have done better than that. Oh wait, MS makes it :rolleyes:

Nuc

PS. On second thought the brown color looks like my babies poo...
 
some humor

Here's a little something I came across. I know the spelling is a bit off, but the pronunciation is close enough. Try looking up the definition of "zoonosis" and "zoonotic". :D
 
I kind of like it, though I'd never buy one.

Glad they used iWeb to design the store... loving those reflections ;)
 
ChrisA said:
It all depends on the retail price. If Microsoft wanted to they could buy their way into the music player market and sell each unit at a loss. So if these are 30GB and sell for $99 each they will kill the iPod overnight. MS could loose $200M and would never notice.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's my biggest fear, undercut prices (8GB iPod $100 more than a 30 GB Zune, etc.) Maybe they aren't going after the iPod, but after the nano, in price range, that would be a killer, still one cannot possibly expect iPod share to stay this high
 
This has the potential to really take off in NZ, as Microsoft have a large presence here and the chance of a localised music download service is relatively high. I read something yesterday that said MS will offer free "crossgrades" from iTunes purchased videos across to Zune videos, which would help sway a lot of people in other countries (no iTunes here).

Of course, if it won't work on a Mac then I won't be getting one any time soon (not that I was anyway, given that I just ordered an 80 gig iPod).
 
I think the Zune is ok, but isn't anything special, and thats really at the heart of the matter. It would take a really special product to build up the kind of market share that the iPod has garnered over the past 5 years, and the Zune simply doesn't stand out from the crowd.

Aggresive pricing will be the only tool in which Microsoft will be able to make an impact on the Music Player market, and even then it'll have to go some way to convince people to switch from the iPod and iTunes combo.

The other thing is, that it seems to be a competitor for the iPod, which is all well and good, but the world's best selling MP3 player is the iPod Nano, which people generally buy for its portability and ease of use. Until Microsoft create a brand of products under the Zune banner, which enables it to compete with all areas of the iPod family, I don't think Apple will have too much to worry about.
 
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